From: tgpedersen
Message: 19797
Date: 2003-03-13
> At 5:34:24 AM on Thursday, March 13, 2003, tgpedersen wrote:Which implies constructions like 'undervisitet' is unconscious? I'm
>
> > --- 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_.)
>