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At a LearningThai forum (
http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?p=53513 ) we are discussing how to
transliterate 'Adam Mickiewicz' from Polish to Thai. We are handicapped by
the fact that the original poster is the only native Polish speaker. The
transliteration of 'Adam' was dictated more by Thai than by Polish - we aren't
shifting from อาดัม. For 'Mickiewicz' I'm working from a broad
transcription as [mit͡s'kʲevit͡ʃ] (IPA),
[mit_s"k'evit_S] (X-SAMPA). The main debate is on how to indicate the
stress. Thai has an iambic stress, and would naturally stress the final
syllable.
The indication of tones in
transcriptions from non-tonal languages is optional, but they may be used to
show the stress.
When transliterating English, the
stress of a word like 'visa' is normally shown by leaving the first syllable
with no tone mark, implying the tone contour 33, and marking the second syllable
as falling 41. English monosyllables ending in stop consonants are
normally borrowed in the high tone (55). What marking would be appropriate
for a stressed, open Polish syllable? My feeling is that it should be a
high (453) or rising (24) tone. (The high tone is dependent on the
syllable type - some authorities refuse to equate the two, despite the well nigh
impossibility of finding a contrasting pair.) I presume we would also have
to fix the tone indication on the final syllable - the default is a high
tone (55), but it could be converted to a falling (41) or low (22)
tone.
There is a minor debate on how to
transcribe <c>. I am proposing that it be treated as though it were
<ts>, as the only Thai affricates are [t_S] (X-SAMPA) (usually used in a
pinyin-like fashion for foreign voiced consonants, such as English [d_Z]) and
[t_S_h]. The alternative being proposed is actually to transcribe it using
a Thai consonant for [k_h]! (There's a pinyin-like aspect here, too - Thai
has no [g]. Thai also lacks syllable-final phonation contrasts, though it
has acquired phonologically marginal syllable-final fricatives from
English.)
Richard.