foreign tongues

[Jonathan Lighter]

Those don't exist, naturally.

JL

David Bergdahl <einstein at FROGNET.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: David Bergdahl
Subject: foreign tongues
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>"Van Gawff" also exists.

...but what of 'fun Hoe-ch' [where ch=velar fric] which is closer to the
Dutch pronunciation of van Gogh? Or 'lingerie' with the last syllable as
[ri] instead of [re]?

Any foreignization confers prestige; to counter it one must agree with
Churchill that foreign tongues were made for the mouths of Englishmen and
not Englishman for foriegn tongues.


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