on pronouncing "gyros" (recycled Linguist List posting)

[James Smith]

--- Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> >James D. SMITH wrote:

> >Interesting ... I've never heard gyro or gyroscope,
> >whether referring to a toy or a high-precision
> device
> >or the name of a company or Disney's Gyro
> Gearloose,
> >pronounced with a [g] - as in 'gun' - or [dZ]
> (unless
> >[dZ] is the same as [dj] as in 'Djibouti', in which
> >case I still don't think it's what I've heard.)
> It's
> >always sounded like more like plain ol' [j] - as in
> >'gem' and 'jump' - to me.
> >
> I suspect that other posters are using the [dZ]
> notation for what you're
> using [j] for:  the voiced alveopalatal affricate,
> a.k.a. "plain ol' [j]".
> If you're limited to ascii and you're worried that
> [j] without a hacek
> might be read as a high front rounded vowel (as
> implausible as that might
> be for the initial segment of 'gyro'), [dZ] is the
> best you can do.  The
> relevant constrast is of course that between the
> aforesaid affricate and
> the voiced velar stop.
>
> larry

I used the notation, provided by Donald M. Lance, that
is given on the ADS FAQ page.  Comparing to other
sources, [j] and [dj] in that list both appear to be
equivalents of [dZ] (or am I missing something?)



=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
SLC, UT                        |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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