thy thigh etc.

[Eduard Selleslagh]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leo A. Connolly" <connolly at memphis.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 6:04 PM

> ERobert52 at aol.com wrote:

>> In a message dated 20/05/01 10:35:02 GMT Daylight Time, connolly at memphis.edu
>> writes:

>> [referring to [c,] and [x] in German]
[snip]
> I checked in the Duden Aussprachewörterbuch of 1962 and found Chaldi
> [xaldi], Chalid [xali:t], Chalil [xali:l],  and Charga [xarga], all with
> [x-] rather than [ç], while Chamaphyte [çamEfy:t] (!), Chamäzephalie
> [çamEtsefali:], Chasma [çasma] with [ç].  I also found Chatte ([çat@]
> beside [kat@]) but Chatti [xati].  So no, if these pronunciations are
> factually correct, your rule doesn't work.  It would in any event be
> very strange for the pronunciation of a consonant in a Germanic language
> to be determined by a noncontiguous consonant.

> Leo Connolly

[Ed Selleslagh]

All these are 'foreign' words. It looks like German tries to
imitate/approximate the original sound: [x] e.g. in (Arabic and oriental)
Chalid, Chalil, and [ç] e.g. in words perceived to be French or introduced
via French ( for [S]). I think the choice between [ç] and [x] , or the choice
for following the general rule ([ç] with front vowels) or not, is mainly
determined by a word's history. Note that <ch> is often pronounced [k], also
historically determined.

Very much like English.

Ed.