7.1073, Qs: Engl articles, Sound files conversion, th substitution

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-1073. Thu Jul 25 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  106
 
Subject: 7.1073, Qs: Engl articles, Sound files conversion, th substitution
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu> (On Leave)
            T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <dseely at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Associate Editor:  Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
                   Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Editor for this issue: dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu (Ann Dizdar)
 
We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then  strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list.   This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.
 
---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Tue, 23 Jul 1996 22:05:44 CDT
From:  burto009 at maroon.tc.umn.edu ("Peter Burton")
Subject:  Handbook on English articles
 
2)
Date:  Wed, 24 Jul 1996 17:08:21
From:  doctor at cdac.ernet.in
Subject:  Conversion of Sound files from WAV/VOC to MIDI
 
3)
Date:  Wed, 24 Jul 1996 17:40:15 -0000
From:  cpeust at gwdg.de
Subject:  Qs: Substitution of th
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Tue, 23 Jul 1996 22:05:44 CDT
From:  burto009 at maroon.tc.umn.edu ("Peter Burton")
Subject:  Handbook on English articles
 
 
Dear Linguists
 
A friend from Slovakia speaks English very well except for some errors
in using the articles.  If you know of a useful handbook on English
articles would you please let me know.
 
Thanks
 
 
Peter R. Burton
MacLaurin Institute
burto009 at maroon.tc.umn.edu
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2)
Date:  Wed, 24 Jul 1996 17:08:21
From:  doctor at cdac.ernet.in
Subject:  Conversion of Sound files from WAV/VOC to MIDI
 
Dear Linguists,
              Does anyone know of any utility for conversion of
WAV/VOC to MIDI format. I have been tiold that it is not possible and
I agree with the arguments given, but still hoping against hope, if
anyone knows of a site where such a converter is available, could you
please mail to me the answer. I'll put up a summary if such a
converter is available or for that matter if any useful information is
available.  Thanks in advance Raymond Doctor doctor at parcom.ernet.in
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3)
Date:  Wed, 24 Jul 1996 17:40:15 -0000
From:  cpeust at gwdg.de
Subject:  Qs: Substitution of th
 
Dear list members,
 
Most languages appear to lack a dental spirant as the english th is (I
mean basically the voiceless variant here), so when speakers of such
languages try to imitate such a spirant they are likely to replace it
by something else. But by what? German natives generally tend to use
/s/ instead when speaking English improperly, while it can be observed
that in Russian, at least at an earlier period, /f/ was used, so
Athenes, mythos etc. from Greek were taken over as Afina, mif etc. In
Arabic, the classical th-sound developed into /t/ in the modern
dialects but today the same sound is regularly substituted as /s/ in
secondary loans from Classical Arabic. Ancient Egyptian obviously
replaced the sound by /t/ (e.g. in the Persian name Mithras).  I
wonder whether the choice of t, s or f respectively can tell us
something about the internal structure of the phonemic system of the
receiving language.  I would be glad if you 1) could give me more
facts about th-substitution in various languages 2) know of a
treatment of this question in the literature.  I will post a summary
on the list if I receive enough answers.  Thank you,
 
Carsten Peust
Seminar of Egyptology and Coptology
Goettingen
cpeust at gwdu20.gwdg.de or cpeust at gwdg.de
 
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