nucular and Latino

[Paul Frank]

>I agree that the Brits mangle foreign words more than Americans.
>Steve Boatti

> Well, I dunno. We do a pretty good job with Italian food items (for
> example), again, especially compared to traditional British
> proniciations, which actually used to have a pronuncaition  of
> "pizza" with rhymed with "pit." I've never heard anything is the US
> other than "Pete." Looks like the "Pete" pronunciation actually went
> Italy-to-US-to-Britain.
> dInIs

Britons don't mangle foreign words. They pronounce them according to the
phonetic rules of British English or, more likely, of their own particular
British dialect. More power to them. I say this although RP is my least
favorite pronunciation of English. The Chinese also do this when speaking
Chinese and the French do it when speaking French. Have you ever heard a
Frenchwoman say Richard Gere? Nor do I reckon that Americans do a _better
job_ of pronouncing foreign words than Brits. Take the word croissant. Most
Americans like to give this word a Frenchified pronunciation rather than a
good old American English one. But they stick at t at the end of the word.
What's that all about? Here's another example: unless I'm mistaken, in
American English the syllable "kant" ought to be pronounced with a short A.
But when saying the name Immanuel Kant Americans employ a long A. In German
it's a short A. Again, I ought to keep my mouth shut because I know nothing
about phonetics.

Paul
_________________________________
Paul Frank
English translation from Chinese, German,
French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese
Tel. +33 450 709 990 - Thollon, France
E-mail: paulfrank at post.harvard.edu

Die sprachen sind die scheyden, darynn
dis messer des geysts stickt. Martin Luther