Fw: Skosh

[Dennis R. Preston]

Our acoustic evidence (of over 30,000 tokens of Japanese words and
phrases, from Tokyo dialect) shows that /shi#/ more often than not
results in devoicing (muting) of the final /i/.

dInIs

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "vincent yann" <janilta at yahoo.fr>
>To: "Dave Robertson" <ddr11 at uvic.ca>
>Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 1:48 AM
>Subject: Skosh
>
>
>>  Yes, 'skosh' derives from Japanese
>>  'sukoshi' apparently, even if other influences cannot
>>  be ruled out. I remember the fuzzy relation between f
>>  ex poontang and putain.
>>  Unlike 'moshimoshi' (heard as moshmosh to foreign
>>  ears), the i in sukoshi is not mute, u being mute
>>  though. Funny to see these 'Asian' words used by the
>>  American troops all over Asia (mamasan, hootch,
>>  sko(o)ch, etc) assuming the 'gooks' would understand it
>>  anyway... I guess that when the Vietnamese heard it in
>>  the 70's, they thought it was pure US English...
>>  I must add that 'skosh' was used in the Yokohama
>>  pidgin (f ex Hocomo's book has it already in 1879)
>>  with the same meaning (few) but did it remained in
>>  general knowledge among Westerners in Asia/Japan half
>>  a century is unknown to me...
>>  Sikky/skivvy exists in English ? Funny ! Sukebe is
>>  indeed a useful word in modern Japan !


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736