--- "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
wrote: > Doug Ewell wrote:

> >
> > Peter T. Daniels <grammatim at worldnet dot att
> > dot net wrote:
> >
> > > Syllables are _extremely_ important to writing
> > > systems.
> >
> > Apparently not in the English writing system :-) ,
> > for then if Hamtramck really is a three-syllable
> > word, there should be a written vowel before
> > the "c".
> >
> > > If there's no third syllable in the Michigan
> > > town, why isn't it /h&mtr&Nk/?
> >
> > Would the /k/ necessarily change the /m/ to /N/?
> > (I forgot the word for this type of change.)
>
> Assimilation. Can you think of English words with a
> nasal other than /N/ before /k/ or /g/? Especially
> without a morpheme boundary intervening?
> (The negative prefix may not assimilate in careful
> pronunciation, but in fast speech it does.)
>
> > Not that I pronounce "Hamtramck" all that often,
> > living in California and all, but when I do it's
> > about two and a half syllables. It certainly
> > doesn't sound quite like "Hamtrammick" or
> > "Hamtrammock."
> >
> > > People I know don't have trouble with Dvor^ák.
> >
> > Most people you know are probably fairly
> > intelligent, educated, and thoughtful. They
> > probably don't say "Eye-talian" and "Eye-rack" and
> > "Sodom" Hussein, either.
>
> You have a problem with Jimmy Carter's education?
>
> As for Mr. Hussein's forename, "Sodom" is a fairly
> good approximation for those unfamiliar with
> consonant length. If the middle consonant is a
> Dad, then "Sodom" is better than Bush 41's "Saddm."
> (So if you can find it written in Arabic script for
> me, I'll let you know.)

At the risk of upsetting the 8-bit email gods, it's
"صدام
حسين" in Arabic which, using
Unicode's names for
Arabic letters is "sad.dal.alef.meem
hah.seen.yeh.noon"

Finding the version with vowels may be trickier...

Andrew Dunbar.

> --
> Peter T. Daniels
> grammatim@...
>

=====
http://linguaphile.sf.net/cgi-bin/translator.pl http://www.abisource.com





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