-stans

[Tom Zurinskas]

That's an interesting idea.  So if we write "Paakistaan" so that we would always say it right, you think would be offensive to them even though our intention is to be most considerate of their pronunciation.  I find that strange.  Trying to be considerate would be offensive?

Didn't someone re-write their language in the first place or was it always roman letters?

VOA pronunciation notation using NO-name-spell

AL QAEDA             al K-EYE-(eh)-duh
BEILIN, YOSSI Israel YO- see   BAY- lihn
BERGER, OSCAR Guatemala O-skahr behr-ZHEHRR
BERNANKE, BEN U.S. BEHN berr-NAN-kee
BOURGASS, KAMEL Algeria kah-MEHL boor-GAHS
BUNDESBANK Germany BOON- dehs-bah-nk
CALABRIA Italy kah-LAH-bree-ah


Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
see truespel.com



-----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Paul Johnston
> Subject: Re: -stans
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> So we're supposed to change the spelling of foreign names to match
> our orthography now? And, since English (and I suppose American
> English) is the "world language", only us? Amerika ueber alles,
> sounds like. No wonder everyone hates us.
>
> Paul
> On Apr 2, 2009, at 12:06 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Tom Zurinskas
>> Subject: Re: -stans
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---------
>>
>> If "stan" is to be pronounced with the "ah" vowel, then why is it
>> spelled "stan". This brings us to the best way to spell the "ah"
>> sound in an English based best phonetic way.
>>
>> There is a real word equivalent,"ah," for that sound, which is
>> usually used in NO-name-spell (the name I've given to the most
>> popular phonetic transcription in English that has no name), e.g.,
>> AHK-toe-ber for October. For spelling the "ah" sound, truespel
>> book 4 finds that the letter "o" is used almost twice as often in
>> running text than the letter "a" for that sound. The letter "o" is
>> also used most often for spelling the "uh" sound, as well (as in
>> "of,other"). The letter "o" is confusing because it's used for so
>> many sounds (go, to, for, on, off, pilot, word).
>>
>> So why not use "ah"? Using letter string "ah" to spell the sound
>> "ah" is not optimal because it mixes vowels and consonants to spell
>> a vowel sound. So the best choice, and the one truespel uses, is
>> "aa", which is consistent in other languages as well.
>>
>> Note: Using the letter "a" for "ah" is a bad choice. In English
>> it must be used to consistently represent the "short a" sound as in
>> "man" (e.g., Stan the Man, Musial). This letter-sound relationship
>> is over 99%, the most consistent for any vowel sound spelling.
>> (truespel book 4).
>>
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>> see truespel.com
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------
>>> Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2009 09:03:47 -0400
>>> From: cdoyle at UGA.EDU
>>> Subject: -stans
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Charles Doyle
>>> Subject: -stans
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ----------
>>>
>>> In his testimony yesterday General Petraeus followed his commander-
>>> in-chief in the paired pronunciations [aefgaen at staen]/[pakistan].
>>> Admiral Olson tried, but the best he could do was [pak at staen].
>>> Last night on MSNBC, in his interview with Rachel Maddow, Colin
>>> Powell consistently said [paek at staen] but [paek at stanI]. (I'm using
>>> "ae" to signify the vowell /ae/).
>>>
>>> --Charlie
>>> _____________________________________________________________
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>
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