nucular and Latino

[Peter A. McGraw]

Elsewhere in his message, Paul Frank mentioned a correspondent on NPR.  I
think the correspondent he heard was probably Maria...(Ynaxosa?  Inajosa?
Inaxosa? I have no idea how to spell her last name).  I've noticed the same
thing (though I haven't heard her for quite awhile now).  Her English
sounds like native AE as I remember, but she pronounces "Latino" with very
tense, monophthongal vowels, an /l/ that's not velarized and, most
distinctively, a fortis but unaspirated /t/.  When I first heard it, I
perceived it as an affectation until I realized that she must be bilingual
and was just making what for her was a natural switch of phonologies, to
that of her other native language for a word that belonged to that
language, in mid-sentence.

Peter Mc.

--On Wednesday, November 14, 2001 6:37 AM -0500 Paul Frank wrote:

>> How come many Hispanic and non-Hispanic native speakers of English
>> pronounce "Latino" and "Latina" as if they were Spanish words when
>> they're speaking English?

And Douglas Wilson replied:

>
> Is the question why it's /la'tinou/ instead of /l&'tinou/ or /l@'tinou/?
> [I've heard all of these, I think.] [replace /ou/ with /@/ for the female
> form.]
>
> Or is a more 'English' alternative suggested, along the lines of
> /'l&t at nou/ (like "domino"/"stamina") or /l@'tainou/ (like
> "albino"/"vagina")?



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                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu