Nicaragua

[Dennis R. Preston]

What about "Lodz" pronounced as "lahdz" instead of "wootch," the
latter correct Polish form containing all English phones? "Paris"
can't be "paREE" because of (at least) the stress pattern and the
"r"; "Nicaragua" has at least the "r" and "g" going against it, but
what's your excuse for Lodz?

Seriously, shouldn't we distinguish at last

1) different words
2) words which contain non-English phones (or perhaps phonotactic
constraints and/or illegal stress placement rules)
and
3) words which contain none of the contrastive elements of 2 (as in
"Lodz") but are nevertheless pronounced in a different way by
"tradition." Of course, in the "Lodz" cases spelling is the most
likely cause, but there must be many others.


dInIs

>And "France" pronounced as "France" instead of French "France."  And
>"Paris" instead of "Paris."
>
>And "Australia" instead of "Australia."
>
>But I guess that's English.
>
>JL
>
>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Laurence Horn
>Subject: Re: Nicaragua
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>Everybody in the media says /hunta/ for "junta," and has for at
>>least forty years, but the quaint OED says the obvious anglicization
>>is A-OK.
>>
>>Many of us will recall Byron's "Don Joo-an."
>>
>And Cervantes' "Don Kwik-sut."
>
>Larry
>
>
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