/fansa/?

[Dennis R. Preston]

Bethany,

luf - THAN - sa

becomes

f  - THAN - sa

through initial unstressed syllable (onset and vowel only) loss (e,g, English
in - KRED - a - bl ["incredible"] becomes n - KRED - a - bl

f - THAN -sa

becomes

FTHAN - sa

due to the lack of "syllabicity" of 'f' in some varieties (seee below) of
English (Note that in "incredible" the "n" residue can become a syllable
rather than merge as onset or as a part of cluster into the next in most
varieties.)

FTHAN -sa

becomes

THAN - sa

or

FAN - sa

be simplifying the (optionally, see below) disallowed /ft/ cluster. I have
all excapt the last two of these in my speech - careful luf -THAN -sa;
rapid speech f - THAN - sa, and VRS (very rapid speech) FTHAN - sa. Not
much of a trick to go a little further a simplify the cluster.

dInIs (who goes norfwes anyhow)





>Awaiting my checked luggage in Philadelphia yesterday, I asked an employee
>(25-ish AA male) which flight was coming in on a certain carousel. He
>said (about 4 times) what sounded like /fansa/. I never did understand
>him, but I later decided that he was probably saying "Lufthansa."
>
>What's the exact pattern I was hearing?
>
>Bethany

Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736