11.186, Qs: "st"/"sp" sound shift, Feminine names
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LINGUIST List: Vol-11-186. Sat Jan 29 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.
Subject: 11.186, Qs: "st"/"sp" sound shift, Feminine names
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1)
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 1980 19:52:27 -0800
From: Tom Fitzsimmons <tjfitz at iol.ie>
Subject: Is there a new "st" and "sp" sound in American English?
2)
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 01:42:18 GMT
From: "Kentaro Toyama" <ktfemsuf at hotmail.com>
Subject: Feminine names ending in "-a"
-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 1980 19:52:27 -0800
From: Tom Fitzsimmons <tjfitz at iol.ie>
Subject: Is there a new "st" and "sp" sound in American English?
I have noticed in the past few years that more and more Americans are
prounouncing "st" and "sp" the way a German would pronounce it: that
is, "sht" or "shp". Has anyone else heard this shift, if it is a shift?
Tom Fitzsimmons.
-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 01:42:18 GMT
From: "Kentaro Toyama" <ktfemsuf at hotmail.com>
Subject: Feminine names ending in "-a"
Does anyone know of any studies done on the frequency of female names
ending in "-a"?
Personal observation has led me to believe that there is a universal
tendency for female names to end in "-a". This is easily confirmed
for names in English or any of the Romance languages: The 1990 US
census ( http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names ) shows that a full 41% of
female names end in "-a" (contributing to 31% of the female
population) versus 1% and 0.6% for male names (of which, many appear
to be female names perhaps adopted by transgender men).
I believe that this trend might also hold for other languages, though
perhaps to a lesser degree.
I am also interested in any reasonable explanations for this
phenomenon -- the most obvious is that languages with noun genders
frequently use "-a" to indicate feminine nouns, but this only begs the
question for why THAT might be so.
Any leads would be greatly appreciated!
Kentaro Toyama
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