Anglicization

[David Wake]

Many more examples at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercorrection#Hyperforeignism

David

On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 7:28 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Anglicization
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>
> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 9:19 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> One can see that in the attempts at phonetic spelling in the 18th
>> century. Â E.g., "Lewis" for "[King] Louis".
>>
>> For another kind of anglicization, one sees "Hyacinth" Paoli for "Giacinto".
>>
>> Joel
>>
>
> This rightly belongs to the "peeve" thread, but there's also
> "pswaydo-*anti*-Anglicization." My wife says "Vokes-Woggon" instead of
> "Vokes-Wagon." When I was in the Army, the Danes complained - to no
> avail, of course - of the practice by visiting GI's of using the
> "German" pronunciation of Copenhagen, with German-like "ah" in the
> third syllable, erroneously considering it to be more "Danish" than
> the usual English pronunciation with "ey."
>
> Why did the Danes feel that this was worth complaining about? My WAG
> is that the Germany of The War was still more than merely old photos
> in back-issues of LIFE to non-German Europeans, even unto the '60's. I
> once overheard in Amsterdam, the first speaker being an American:
>
> A."It must be really easy for a Dutchman to speak German." (a fallacy,
> of course)
> B."Yes, but a *good* Dutchman doesn't speak German!"
>
> For those totally unfamiliar with Danish, the local pronunciation of
> "Copenhagen" sounds a lot more like, roughly, "Curb 'em, houn' " than
> like either the German or the English pronunciation.
> --
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> –Mark Twain
>
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