Anglicization

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:28 PM -0400 10/8/10, Wilson Gray wrote:
>  When I was in the Army, the Danes complained - to no
>avail, of course - of the practice by visiting GI's of using the
>"German" pronunciation of Copenhagen, with German-like "ah" in the
>third syllable, erroneously considering it to be more "Danish" than
>the usual English pronunciation with "ey."

Without having heard this from a Dane, I have heard this from
*some*one (or more than one).  I'm planning to be in Copenhagen (if
only briefly) for the first time in 65 years this spring so I'll try
to check it out.

>...
>For those totally unfamiliar with Danish, the local pronunciation of
>"Copenhagen" sounds a lot more like, roughly, "Curb 'em, houn' " than
>like either the German or the English pronunciation.
>--
Presumably the speaking 'houn is saying "Curb 'em" with a British
rather than U.S. pronunciation here (the way donkeys say "Eeyore"),
even though you might normally expect dogs to be rhotic.

LH

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