On 7/12/2011 4:32, Warp wrote:
>    How does any language deal with foreign words?

You haven't looked into Chinese a lot, have you? :-)

>    If a foreign name cannot be changed (eg. because it's a proper name, eg.
> the name of a person or a company), then it's just written as it is (if the
> name happens to have some letter not in the Finnish alphabet, then how it's
> dealt with varies from medium to medium and person to person).

In Chinese, they pick characters that are pronounced similarly but have a 
particular meaning. For example, "coca cola" in Chinese might be spelled in 
a way that sounds like "coca cola" and means "tasty sweet water" or some 
such. Something that always amuses me.

They do this with famous people, too.

> (Britons would have a fun time watching a Finn trying to pronounce
> "Worcestershire".)

Everyone has fun watching people say that one. ;-)

There's a saying in the USA:
In Texas, "yep" is three syllables. In Boston, "Worcestershire" is one.

>    I have never heard "hombre" pronounced any differently from (the
> fictitious word) "ombre". (I have lived in Spain for 12 years.) I don't
> know if it's different in Latin America.

The only time I've heard the "h" pronounced there is when it's a Latino 
person making fun of a non-Latino. Sort of like a black man distinguishing 
"nigger" from "nigga" or something.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Coding without comments is like
    driving without turn signals."

Post a reply to this message