7.1274, Qs: Bilingualism, Sanskrit Chinese, Consonant + Y in English

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-1274. Fri Sep 13 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  192
 
Subject: 7.1274, Qs: Bilingualism, Sanskrit Chinese, Consonant + Y in English
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu> (On Leave)
            T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <dseely at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Associate Editor:  Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
                   Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Editor for this issue: dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu (Ann Dizdar)
 
We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then  strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list.   This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.
 
---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Thu, 12 Sep 1996 10:47:35 EDT
From:  demod at gusun.acc.georgetown.edu (Douglas Demo)
Subject:  research on bilingualism
 
2)
Date:  Thu, 12 Sep 1996 16:17:48 CDT
From:  kozonoj at gunet.georgetown.edu (Joseph Kozono)
Subject:  Sanskrit Chinese
 
3)
Date:  Thu, 12 Sep 1996 16:28:36 CDT
From:  dharris at las-inc.com (Dave Harris)
Subject:  Consonant + Y
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Thu, 12 Sep 1996 10:47:35 EDT
From:  demod at gusun.acc.georgetown.edu (Douglas Demo)
Subject:  research on bilingualism
 
Dear Linguists,
  I am currently writing a paper on Spanish-English bilinguals in the
US, more specifically, on those persons who have acquired Spanish at
home yet have not had any formal exposure to the language
(ie. classroom).  In addition, this subset of bilinguals should also
have acquired English through formal exposure via the American
educational system.  I would appreciate any available references
regarding this particular class of bilingual speaker.  Please send any
info. to:
 
		demod at gusun.georgetown.edu
Thanks in advance for any suggestions...
 
Douglas A. Demo
Dept. of Spanish
Georgetown University
 
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2)
Date:  Thu, 12 Sep 1996 16:17:48 CDT
From:  kozonoj at gunet.georgetown.edu (Joseph Kozono)
Subject:  Sanskrit Chinese
 
I am not sure if this question has been asked before, but I would like
to know if there is any dictionary or glossary in one form or another
which contains Sanskrit with Chinese (Classical Chinese preferably)
and viceversa, Classical Chinese Sanskrit.  If someone in this forum
knows of a resource like this, please let me know.
 
Joseph M. Kozono
kozonoj at gunet.georgetown.edu
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3)
Date:  Thu, 12 Sep 1996 16:28:36 CDT
From:  dharris at las-inc.com (Dave Harris)
Subject:  Consonant + Y
 
 Greetings! I am doing some research into Romanizations of names from
languages that use non-Roman scripts. As might can imagine, there are
a lot of interesting problems that come up when English, German,
French and other orthographies collide with more phonetic renderings
of names. Other problems result when the actual pronunciation of the
name reflects dialectal or other variation.
 Right now I'm looking at 'Y' and how it might be realized in various
languages. English speakers would ordinarily pronounce 'Y' as a vowel
when it follows a consonant or semi-vowel [w] and precedes a vowel as
in the names:
               WYATT, RYAN, MYERS, LYONS, BRYANT,
 and the lexical items:
                trying, dryer, etc.
 
 In some languages, this spelling would represent a semi-vowel,
ie. PYONG [pjaG] (pardon my e-mail IPA here where upper-case G
represents the "ng" in "song"). While such a sound combination IS
allowed in English (consonant + [j] + vowel), we never use this
spelling to represent it but rather 'EW' or 'U' as in:
        reMUneration, FEw, PUtrid, United (as well as NEw and DUke in
some accents)
 (((The same goes for [w] incidentally, where, {'QU' + vowel}
('quick,' 'queer,' 'quack,' 'quoth,' etc.) and {'GU' + vowel}
('lingual' 'linguistics') are used instead of KW or GW; except in such
cutesy spellings as KAR KWIK or the weird oddity "dweeb.")))
 Consequently, I don't believe it would often occur to English
speakers to pronounce a name like BYON or BYES as [bjan] or
[bjEs]. They would be much more likely to pronounce them [baian] and
[baiz] (respectively). Now then, here's my question:
 
 Is it likely that English speakers would intuitively pronounce a name
like PYONG as [pjAG] rather than the expected Anglophone [paijAG] due
to a conscious or semi-conscious knowledge that Chinese and other
names follow a different set of orthographic rules? If you're real
ambitious, please also take a couple of minutes to mark (with an
exclamation mark on the front) the words on the list following in
which you would pronounce the Y as a consonant (semi-vowel) rather
than a vowel or those which you think most English speakers would
pronounce that way. I'll summarize and post to the list. Thanks, David
Harris
 
(PS my summary concerning the Worcester/Leicester/Gloucester factor is
coming shortly. I'm just waiting to give a few stragglers a chance to
contribute something)
 
MYINT
GYATSO
BYOD
XYONG
TYERYAR
RYEN
RYEA
PYO
NYULASSY
MYALL
LYERLA
BYOUS
BYAL
SYER
RYUN
LYAS
DYETT
BYUS
BYONE
SYON
SYAL
DYALS
BYES
RYEN
RYEA
PYO
NYULASSY
MYALL
LYERLA
BYOUS
BYORN
BYAL
SYER
RYUN
RYAL
PYETTE
NYAHAY
MYES
LYEW
LYAU
HYATTE
GYURKO
GYAKI
DYEN
BYANT
LYE
BYON
RYU
KYUNG
HYON
HYETT
HYERS
FYALL
WYAND
SYERS
SYAS
PYON
PYEATT
MYART
LYAS
 
 
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