Strictly a pronunciation question

[Beverly Flanigan]

But who's "they" who couldn't tell the twins apart--surely not the
mother?  Actually, the twins are either African American or biracial, so I
suspect the Brits just didn't want those "black-sounding" names.  Yes,
the  mixed race couple in California apparently agreed to keep the original
names.

At 04:54 PM 1/20/01 +0800, you wrote:
>>Now now larry. What did the Brits name them?
>>
>>dInIs
>
>Actually, a bit of research reveals that it was the birth mother
>(nice retronym) herself who named them Kiara and Keyara, and then put
>them up on the web for adoption, presumably because they couldn't
>tell them apart with the neutralized vowels and all.  The British
>couple, the Kilshaws, re-named them Kimberley and Belinda, which have
>the virtue of being phonologically distinct.  The
>California couple, the Allens, evidently are willing to retain the
>girls' birth names, but maybe that factor shouldn't be absolutely
>decisive in itself.
>
>larry
>
>>
>>
>>>At 10:11 PM -0800 1/19/01, Kim & Rima McKinzey wrote:
>>>>Have you been following the transatlantic adoption mess?  If not,
>>>>there are twin girls who were given up for adoption by their birth
>>>>mother.  A couple in California adopted them after paying $6000 with
>>>>a promise of another $2500 when they had it.  After having the girls
>>>>for a little while, the birth mother came to visit and supposedly to
>>>>say goodby.  She took them and never returned.  Turns out she then
>>>>gave them to a British couple who paid $12,200.  Definitely a lousy
>>>>situation.
>>>>
>>>>However, the articles have said that the California couple named the
>>>>6 month old girls Kiara and Keyara.  How do you pronounce these???
>>>>At first glance they would seem to be identical, but maybe one has an
>>>>i macron in first syllable and the other an e macron?  Maybe one has
>>>>an ash as second vowel and the other a broad a?
>>>>
>>>>Rima
>>>Strictly a pronunciation question my foot--this is prima facie
>>>evidence for a judgment in favor of the British couple.
>>>
>>>larry
>>
>>--
>>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


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm