LL-L "Phonology" 2003.05.02 (04) [E]
Lowlands-L
sassisch at yahoo.com
Fri May 2 16:21:18 UTC 2003
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L O W L A N D S - L * 02.MAY.2003 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology
Dear Lowlanders,
I have noticed a certain phonological phenomenon but am not sure if it
has been widely recognized, analyzed and labeled. I wonder what one
should call it. Perhaps it falls into the broader category of
overcompensation. If no one has named it so far, I will refer to it as
"exoticization."
At first I thought it was a temporary quirky thing among Americans who
want to come across as linguistically more savvy than they are,
noticeable particularly among radio and television reporters. However,
to my private dismay, lately I have been noticing the same phenomenon
among Canadian, British and Australian media people and politicians.
Specifically, this is a tendency, if not a rule, to pronounce what
should be [dZ] (as in English "jar" or "jeep") as [Z] (as in English
'measure' or 'azure' and as in French _jour_ or _gitan_) in foreign
words and names, excluding "important" languages such as Spanish,
Italian and German. This applies mostly to languages considered
"exotic" by Westerners.
The first time I noticed it -- quite a few years ago -- was in the
Mandarin name _Beijing_ (for what used to be called "Peking"), which has
come to be pronounced "bay-zhing" (with main stress on the second
syllable, but let's not talk about stress here in the case of transfer
from a tonal language). What in Pinyin Romanization is written as <j>
is an alveodental affricate (in some dialects [dz]). The closest
English approximant is <j>, also an affricate, not the "" fricative
(which in English occurs quite rarely). Somehow someone must have
started this "Beiíng" thing, and everyone else followed like sheep. I
once called someone on it, and she said she didn't care what was
correct; "Beiíng" sounded nicer to her, and everyone else was saying it
like that. I remember the American reporter Andrea Koppel pronouncing
the name "correctly" with a "j", and I heard that she actually studied
Chinese, but I do not know if she has conformed to the general "Beiíng"
thing in the meantime. I have heard other Chinese names pronounced in
like manner; e.g., Nanjing (as "Naníng") and Guangzhou (as "Gwan(g)ú"
instead of more appropriate "Gwángjoe").
I used to think this was confined to Chinese names, but lately I have
been hearing words and names in Middle Eastern languages pronounced with
"" instead of more appropriate "j". Because of recent events, Arabic
names and words have come up a lot. Arabic has the affricate "j" sound
(corresponding to "g" in Egyptian Arabic and also in Hebrew); it has no
"" sound. However, "" is almost regularly used in Iraqi city names
such as (An-)Najaf and Fallujah, and yesterday I heard two BBC reporters
pronounce the word _hajj_ 'pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina' as "haa".
What is this about? Did this start off as something French-influenced?
Are people sticking to it because it sounds more "foreign," "exotic"?
Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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