Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

fernando · 30th December 2007, 01:26 PM

Thank you for your answers, Gentlemen.
The particularity in posting at this Forum is that one often gets comprehensive answers from highly educated people, having to go browsing the "netpedias" or "netctionaries" to learn the meaning or the extent of their lectures.
From Bernard Shaw i only remembered he had a beard; now i know about ghoti ... and both his and Ariel's interpretations of the term

Ignorantly i didn't connect him with professor Henry Higgins, although i lightly remember seeing the first version of Pygmalion in the cinema; i am an old specimen. I love that playing with phonetics, from which i keep a fresher memory from Rex Harrison in My fair lady.
I also like "bununahs", although in portuguese it wouldn't function, as we have distinct phonetics. While in english the u may sound three different ways, must, put and cute, in portuguese it only sounds as put, or it doesn't sound at all, like in kilogram ... we write quilogram bu we pronounce qilogram.
I understand your point Rob T. I live in a country with the size of a courtyard and the accents are by the thousand. It's easy to detect the inhabitants of a certain town close ( actually glued ) to mine, after they speak up a couple phrases. Not to mention that i can easily understand a downtown Londoner and i get troubles with cocknies.
Emanuel sugests that the uh has no letter in english, although it has a phonetic symbol, same as used for cut ( from cutting ).
On the other hand, the a in portuguese may either sound like banana or laugh.
On what concerns the w, we practicaly don't use it in our native writing but, when have to read it or atribute it, we consider u like in english, and not v, like in german. But i see from Ariel that the idea is sound it like v, in the case of the sword's term.
I come to the conclusion that, if the question of all publicized variations ( there are three or four out there ) is to aproach the various language phonetics to the original sound in India, i still find it hard to adopt one as a portuguese version.
One of these days i will have dinner at an Indian restaurant in Braga, twenty five miles away from my home town. The owners are Sikh ... i know they are from different regions. If until then i don't find the term in a phonetic web site, i will have these guys to pronounce it for me ... just for curiosity sake.
Thanks again for your enlightenings.
Fernando

30th December 2007, 01:26 PM	#9
fernando (deceased) Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Portugal Posts: 9,694	Thank you for your answers, Gentlemen. The particularity in posting at this Forum is that one often gets comprehensive answers from highly educated people, having to go browsing the "netpedias" or "netctionaries" to learn the meaning or the extent of their lectures. From Bernard Shaw i only remembered he had a beard; now i know about ghoti ... and both his and Ariel's interpretations of the term Ignorantly i didn't connect him with professor Henry Higgins, although i lightly remember seeing the first version of Pygmalion in the cinema; i am an old specimen. I love that playing with phonetics, from which i keep a fresher memory from Rex Harrison in My fair lady. I also like "bununahs", although in portuguese it wouldn't function, as we have distinct phonetics. While in english the u may sound three different ways, must, put and cute, in portuguese it only sounds as put, or it doesn't sound at all, like in kilogram ... we write quilogram bu we pronounce qilogram. I understand your point Rob T. I live in a country with the size of a courtyard and the accents are by the thousand. It's easy to detect the inhabitants of a certain town close ( actually glued ) to mine, after they speak up a couple phrases. Not to mention that i can easily understand a downtown Londoner and i get troubles with cocknies. Emanuel sugests that the uh has no letter in english, although it has a phonetic symbol, same as used for cut ( from cutting ). On the other hand, the a in portuguese may either sound like banana or laugh. On what concerns the w, we practicaly don't use it in our native writing but, when have to read it or atribute it, we consider u like in english, and not v, like in german. But i see from Ariel that the idea is sound it like v, in the case of the sword's term. I come to the conclusion that, if the question of all publicized variations ( there are three or four out there ) is to aproach the various language phonetics to the original sound in India, i still find it hard to adopt one as a portuguese version. One of these days i will have dinner at an Indian restaurant in Braga, twenty five miles away from my home town. The owners are Sikh ... i know they are from different regions. If until then i don't find the term in a phonetic web site, i will have these guys to pronounce it for me ... just for curiosity sake. Thanks again for your enlightenings. Fernando Last edited by fernando; 30th December 2007 at 01:42 PM.