LL-L "Phonology" 2003.05.02 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 02.MAY.2003 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

Dear Lowlanders,

I have noticed a certain phonological phenomenon but am not sure if it
has been widely recognized, analyzed and labeled.  I wonder what one
should call it.  Perhaps it falls into the broader category of
overcompensation.  If no one has named it so far, I will refer to it as
"exoticization."

At first I thought it was a temporary quirky thing among Americans who
want to come across as linguistically more savvy than they are,
noticeable particularly among radio and television reporters.  However,
to my private dismay, lately I have been noticing the same phenomenon
among Canadian, British and Australian media people and politicians.

Specifically, this is a tendency, if not a rule, to pronounce what
should be [dZ] (as in English "jar" or "jeep") as [Z] (as in English
'measure' or 'azure' and as in French _jour_ or _gitan_) in foreign
words and names, excluding "important" languages such as Spanish,
Italian and German.  This applies mostly to languages considered
"exotic" by Westerners.

The first time I noticed it -- quite a few years ago -- was in the
Mandarin name _Beijing_ (for what used to be called "Peking"), which has
come to be pronounced "bay-zhing" (with main stress on the second
syllable, but let's not talk about stress here in the case of transfer
from a tonal language).  What in Pinyin Romanization is written as <j>
is an alveodental affricate (in some dialects [dz]).  The closest
English approximant is <j>, also an affricate, not the "ž" fricative
(which in English occurs quite rarely).  Somehow someone must have
started this "Beižíng" thing, and everyone else followed like sheep.  I
once called someone on it, and she said she didn't care what was
correct; "Beižíng" sounded nicer to her, and everyone else was saying it
like that.  I remember the American reporter Andrea Koppel pronouncing
the name "correctly" with a "j", and I heard that she actually studied
Chinese, but I do not know if she has conformed to the general "Beižíng"
thing in the meantime.  I have heard other Chinese names pronounced in
like manner; e.g., Nanjing (as "Nanžíng") and Guangzhou (as "Gwan(g)žú"
instead of more appropriate "Gwángjoe").

I used to think this was confined to Chinese names, but lately I have
been hearing words and names in Middle Eastern languages pronounced with
"ž" instead of more appropriate "j".  Because of recent events, Arabic
names and words have come up a lot.  Arabic has the affricate "j" sound
(corresponding to "g" in Egyptian Arabic and also in Hebrew); it has no
"ž" sound.  However, "ž" is almost regularly used in Iraqi city names
such as (An-)Najaf and Fallujah, and yesterday I heard two BBC reporters
pronounce the word _hajj_ 'pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina' as "haaž".

What is this about?  Did this start off as something French-influenced?
Are people sticking to it because it sounds more "foreign," "exotic"?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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