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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re:  Pronouncing your name in another language.
Message-ID: <1995Jan19.061149.2995@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <1732712584S86.JAREA@ukcc.uky.edu>
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 06:11:49 GMT
Lines: 35

In article <1732712584S86.JAREA@ukcc.uky.edu> JAREA@ukcc.uky.edu writes:
>On the "if it's a foreign language, prnounce it like Spanish", one of my
>favorite (actually non-favorite) examples is the name of the language
>spoke in Spain, in and near Barcelona.  In that language, the name is
>'Catala':  the accent is on the final vowel, and the first two are
>schwa:  /k@t@la'/.   In Spanish (another nearby language) the name of
>the language we were talking about is 'Catalan':  WITH a pronounced
>final nasal, accent still on the last vowel, but all of the vowels are
>/a/, (like in open your mouth ans say 'ah').  For reasons which fall
>under the opening topic (where the stupid computer omitted the word
>topic and the stupid editor won't let me simply insert it) most
>Americans (most English speakers?), pronounce it as the Spaniards do.

Huh?  The only Americans I've heard say [kata'lan] had some Spanish
language background.  Most Americans say ['k%t@l%n], less commonly
['k%t@l@n]; these are also the only pronunciations listed in my
_Funk and Wagnalls_, which bases itself primarily on North American
usage.  This is a different phenomenon than saying [ra'bin] instead
of ['rabin] (Yitzhak Rabin) or [ja'matou] instead of [jamato] (Yamato).
Neither of these names is derived from or came to English from Spanish,
but both are altered in pronunciatation to conform to (perceived) rules
of Spanish. i.e. stressed vowel + -n# (Mart'in, jam'on, Tenochtitlan)
or penultimate stress (burrito, enchilada, fajita, etc.).  

An Aussie poster pointed out that they don't have Spanish as their'
default' in these situations.  I wonder, then, where they put the 
stress in Japanese names. 

(For more on this phenomenon, see the "pronouncing your name in
a foreign language" thread.)

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
