Don Q. (was: Nicaragua)

[Mark A. Mandel]

Peter A. McGraw wrote:
>      there seems to be a general conviction at least in the
> Germanic-speaking areas of continental Europe that the name of that
> famous Spanish novel is properly pronounced something like "Donkey Shot,"
> which completely baffled me the first time I encountered it. (I assume
> this pronunciation came via France, though I don't think I ever actually
> heard a Frenchman refer to the work.)

Larry confirmed:

> Yep, Quichotte [ki'SOt].

As far I understand, that's because that's close to how Cervantes
pronounced it: /ki'So.te/. The "x" represented a phoneme /S/, like English
"sh". That's why it's used for that phone in the transcription of Central
and South American languages.

-- mam