Re: [tied] Re: The Philistines

At 5:34:24 AM on Thursday, March 13, 2003, tgpedersen wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
> wrote:

>> At 10:17:14 PM on Wednesday, March 12, 2003, Glen Gordon
>> wrote:

>>> Chinese do this to foreign names all the time. Take a look
>>> at the Mandarin word for "America" which is a phonetically
>>> similar /meiguo/. While the word is in part taken from
>>> English "America", it has been reanalysed according to
>>> native elements such that the word literally means
>>> "beautiful country" (/mei/ "beautiful" + /guo/ "country").

>> As I understand it, it isn't a matter of reanalysis.
>> Rather, a appropriately meaningful phrase is
>> intentionally found that is phonetically similar to the
>> foreign target.

> They call it folk etymology. Now also available vacuum-packed.

No, Torsten, it is not a folk etymology. It is a conscious
construction. E.g., <xímíngnàêr> 'seminar', consciously
chosen for its phonetic similarity to <seminar> *and* its
meaning 'review-understand-accept-like that'. The coinage
<làngmàn> 'romantic' is intended to resemble <romantic> in
sound, but its syllables are literally 'unrestrained' and
'free'. (Examples from Ramsey, _The Languages of China_.)

Brian