Juan and Quixote [was: Don't touch my phonemes (PS)]

[Max Wheeler]

--On Tuesday, December 5, 2000 8:14 -0500 "Douglas G. Wilson"
<douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> Naive impressions of a Yankee:

> I've never heard Byron's /dZu at n/, except with respect to Byron's work or
> as a joke.
>

> I've NEVER heard /kwIks at t/. I've heard /kwiksout/ as a joke only.
> "Quixotism" is /kwIks at tIz@m/, however.
>
> -- Doug Wilson

In British English, in my experience it's Don /dZu at n/ for Byron's poem, and
for Richard Strauss's tone poem (always so pronounced on BBC Radio 3); but
Don /xwan/ or /hwan/ for the archetypal figure (as originally in Tirso de
Molina's play) and metonymically for a man that behaves like him. I don't
know what they do when ENO sings Don Giovanni in English [but I don't
recall if his name actually gets sung]. BTW the Manx version of John is
<Juan>, which is pronounced /dZu at n/ in Manx English.

Similarly in British English Don /kwiks at t/ or /kwiksout/. Only those (few)
who know any Spanish would recognize /kixDte/ (or similar), and to use a
form like that in Br. English sounds pretentious. /kwiks at t/ ~ /kwiksout/
is, of course, a spelling pronunciation, but when this character became
familiar in the 17th century who was to know any better? Sancho Panza is
not surprisingly /santSou panz@/ not /..panTa/ or /..pansa/ or similar.

No normative intent in any of the above.

Max
____________________________________________________________
Max W. Wheeler
School of Cognitive & Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Falmer
BRIGHTON BN1 9QH, G.B.

Tel: +44 (0)1273 678975 Fax: +44 (0)1273 671320 Email:
maxw at cogs.susx.ac.uk
____________________________________________________________