Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!oitnews.harvard.edu!purdue!lerc.nasa.gov!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!freenet.columbus.oh.us!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!in1.uu.net!news.moneng.mei.com!news.ecn.bgu.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!kimbark!deb5
From: deb5@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Acquisition of phonemes thfough foreign influences
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: midway.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <DFq69G.EB@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: The University of Chicago
References: <43q7i7$93b@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com> <43shrv$med@clarknet.clark.net> <4480mq$f47@mars.earthlink.net> <ludemannDFMHCv.8J5@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 15:41:39 GMT
Lines: 26

In article <ludemannDFMHCv.8J5@netcom.com>,
Peter Ludemann <ludemann@netcom.com> wrote:

>One thing I haven't figured out is why Japanese will often write "kya"
>where English has initial "ca".  Clearly, this is not derived from
>writing; and I don't know of any English dialect that builds
>diphthongs that way.  (There is British "tyu" sound where American has
>"tu"; but Japanese would turn both of these into "tsu".]

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't the spelling <kya> restricted
to words with [%], like <kyandee> (<- ['k%ndi] "candy") and <kyasshu> 
(<- [k%S] "cash")?  That is, isn't the <ya> an attempt to render a low,
unrounded front vowel absent in Japanese, just as <yu> in words like
<dyusserudorufu> (<-['dYsldORf] "Duesseldorf") is an attempt to render a 
simlarly absent high, rounded front vowel?

On a historical note, a similar thing happens/has happened in English:
British [tju] is often derived from French [ty], as in "tutor" from
OF "tutour" [ty'tur] or [ku'tjur] for [ku'tyR] in the recent borrowing
"haute couture."


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