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From: ludemann@netcom.com (Peter Ludemann)
Subject: Re: Acquisition of phonemes thfough foreign influences
Message-ID: <ludemannDFMHCv.8J5@netcom.com>
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Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 15:50:55 GMT
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In article <4480mq$f47@mars.earthlink.net>,  <bodhi@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>Foreign words are written in katakana, a syllabic script that provides
>>only for open syllables and intersyllabic /n/. Therefore, foreign words
>>are recast so that they have only open syllables (except /n/, as in
>>a-i-ru-ra-n-do = "Ireland").
>
>What you are representing, and which has actually become quite common
>with English words borrowed into Japanese, is a case of transliteration.  If
>the word would have been borrowed in via speech, it may have been
>closer to /aiaran/.
>
>A great example of this is the pair of borrow words /airon/ and /aian/.  The
>first is the 'iron' used to press clothes and the second is the 'iron' used to 
>play golf.  Undoubtedly, the first was borrowed into Japanese from written 
>English, where the latter was borrowed in from spoken English.

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".]

"Cocktail" is spelled "ka'kuteru" (the "'" is a glotal stop; the "u"s
are devoiced).  This puzzled me: why not "ko'kuteru"?  Then, after
listening carefully to Americans talking, I realized that American "o"
sounds closer to Japanese "a" than to Japanese "o".  If the Japanese
had picked up "cocktail" from the British, they would probably write
it "ko'kuteru".


-- 
Peter Ludemann           ludemann@netcom.com, ludemann@expernet.com
