Re: [OT?] Seeking for sample words in Yi, Cree, Lao, Sinhala, Tam i

{
Sorry for sending a second copy of this message. I realized that I used a
word which might be blocked by some e-mail filters, as it is normally a hint
of "questionable content". I have now re-written this word as "p***": it
refers to those pictures and films which parents don't like their children
to see. :-)
BTW, and what's "tipâvali"?
}

suzmccarth wrote:

> I have slightly modified the Tamil list adding a few words.
>
> http://livingstone.vsb.bc.ca/multiliteracy/languagelinks/t_list.htm
>
> However, I don't know of loan words for most of the items you
> mention.

The words I mentioned were just examples of the kind of words I used for
other languages. I don't want to use exactly the same words for all the
languages, on the contrary.

Your Tamil list is perfectly fine for me. Moreover, I have a second list
from Wolfgang, who also contributed a nice Telugu wordlist which totally
fits my needs.

Here are my current guesses (integrated with corrections and suggestions
that I already received):

ஆரஞ்ச் /ârañc/ orange (/c/ = [dž])
காபி /kâpi/ coffee
ரோட்டி /rôt.t.i/ roti (*1)
கறி /kar_i/ curry
நான் /nân_/ naan (*1)
டிஸ்கோ /t.iskô/ disco
சினிமா /cinimâ/ cinema (/c/ = [s])
சேல்போன் /cêlpôn_/ cell-phone (/c/ = [s])
கார் /kâr/ car
கிலோமீட்டர் /kilômît.t.ar/ kilometer
ராமா /râmâ/ Rahma
பௌத்த /pautta/ "no, silly!" (*2)
அசோகா /acôkâ/ Ashoka (/c/ = [š]?) (*3)
இந்து /intu/ Hindu
முஸ்லிம் /muslim/ Muslim
தீபாவளி /tipâvali/ ???
கனடா /kan_at.â/ Canada
இந்தியா /intiyâ/ India (*4)
அமெரிக்க /amerikka/ America

*1: I'll certainly discard these as they won't be known by average Italians.
Unlike Chinese restaurants, which are ubiquitous in Italy, Indian
restaurants are uncommon and only to be found in main cities (and are very
expensive, so not so popular...). Curry, however, is well-known from Chinese
cuisine and is found sometimes in Italian cuisine itself.

*2: C'mon, what's a "pautta"!? At least a hint: is it something you can eat
or something that can eat you?

*3: Is this only the historical emperor Ashoka, or is it also a common name
for men?

*4: Possibly a bureacratic term only to be seen in official documents,
right?

> I do have a nice list of Canadiana [...]

Thanks, no. It would be hard to explain why most of my Tamil samples are
related to Canada. :-)

The only word that I miss a bit is the noun "Tamil" itself.

> I found this observation in a Tamil post.
>
> >I think Tol is correct in interpreting that there is a near
> >voiceless vowel operates on to some consonant clusters.
>
> >eg:
> >brook = burook with a near voiceless u
> >break = bireak with a near voiceless i
>
> Does anyone have any examples from other langauges where consonant
> clusters become separate syllables. These even seem to show vowel
> harmony.

Japanese, Chinese, and Korean come to mind. In Japanese, the intervening
vowels are almost invariably "i" after palatals (e.g. "mecchi" = "match")
and "u" after other consonants (e.g. "birudingu" = "building").

But I've found a similar trend for cluster splitting in most script which
are somehow "syllabic", e.g. Maldivian ("kureditu kaadu" = "credit card").

However, it must not be only a consequence of writing system: e.g., the
central and southern Italian pronunciation for "soft" and "hard" (English
loanwords, used as abbreviatoon of either "soft p***" and "hard p***" or
"software" and "hardware") is /'sOffete/ and /'arde/. And "ìcchese"
(/'ikkese/) is a regular variants for "ics" (/'iks/: the name of letter
"X").

* * * * *

Now, how about Yi, Cree or Inuktitut anyone?

In Inuktitut I have "Inuit", "Europmiuk" (= 'Europeans'), "silabiks"
('syllabics'), and "Kanada". As the script was originally for Cree, I'd like
to have also some Cree words.

Yi (aka Lolo, spoken in Yunnan, China) is the language which worries me
more, as I can't really find anything anywhere, either on paper or on the
net.

--
Marco