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From: deb5@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Acquisition of phonemes thfough foreign influences
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Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 15:02:32 GMT
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In article <43q7i7$93b@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>,
donald phillips  <philldon@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>Are languages known to acquire phonemes as a result of foreign
>influence?  I am thinking specifically of English after the Norman
>invasion and through the Renaissance.  It occurs to me that English has
>the 'zh' phoneme, primarily (as far as I know) in French
>borrowings'treasure', 'casual'.  German, English's close relative,
>does not.  Did 'zh' exist in English pre-1066?

Did not.  Thanks to loanwords such as "Blamage" [bla'ma:Z(@)] and "Gene"
[ZE:n], a case can be made for the phonemic status of /Z/ in modern
standard German.

>    On the other hand, the Hebrew 'cherub' and 'chutzpah' are not
>pronounced with the Hebrew 'kh' but with the English 'ch' (as in
>cheese) or 'k'.  

	I have never heard ['tS@tsp@] *or* ['k@tsp@], only ['h@tsp@]
and ['x@tsp@] (occasionally, ['hU]- and ['xU]-, which I suspect are
spelling pronunciations).  Since I can't recall any other American English
words pronounced with initial [x], I think the strong affective sense of
"chutzpah" is what helps to preserve it.  Medial and final [x] (in words
like "naches", "braches", "cojones" {a popular synonymn for "chutzpah"})
is occasionally preserved, more often shifted to [h] or [k].  (I've never
heard anyone say [k@'kounes] for "cojones", though.)

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