Pronunciation of Donetsk

[Dan Goncharoff]

Also, isn't the Russian word for Slovyansk transliterated as Slavyansk?
That would mean it depends on which side you are talking to as to which
name is 'correct'.

DanG


On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 10:53 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Pronunciation of Donetsk
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On May 29, 2014, at 12:46 AM, imwitty wrote:
>
> > One more thing related to the Ukrainian events:
> > 99% of the on-line news mention "Slovyansk" (which is wrong) instead of
> > "Slavyansk", probably trying to avoid any association with the English
> > จslaveจ, or thinking that the root of "Slovyansk" is "slovo" (Russian and
> > Ukrainian translation of the English "word".
>
> I'd wager it's neither of the above; the simpler explanation is
> unfamiliarity with the Russian and (I assume from the above) Ukrainian rule
> that unstressed /o/ (or orthographic <o> in both Cyrillic and standard
> Romanization) is pronounced [a], something you're taught in Russian 101,
> which not all the newscasters have taken.  Hence a garden-variety spelling
> pronunciation.  Same for Donetsk, which I haven't heard as "duh-neck", but
> have usually heard as /do'nyEtsk/ (when the first vowel isn't simply
> schwazified) rather than /da'nyEtsk/.
>
> LH
>
>
>
> > Meanwhile the root of the correct city name -- Slavyansk -- is the same
> as
> > in จSlavicจจ and/or "Slav(s)."
> >
> >
> > On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 5:13 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >> Subject:      Pronunciation of Donetsk
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Today I heard a local Boston news announcer say "duh-neck".
> >>
> >> Joel
> >>
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