[Vision2020] Alaska vote count

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Thursday 11 November 2010 09:43:30 Ralph Nielsen wrote:
> I think you forgot the "v" sound, Ken. For some odd reason the Polish  
> language uses "w" instead of "v". So Murkowski should be pronounced  
> Murkovski, like another well known Slavic name, Tchaikovsky. All the  
> other Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet use "v," not "w."  
> So when you see a Slavic name or word with a "w" in it, it is Polish.

You're right, I didn't think about the v sound because I wasn't concerned 
about the name's language origin. After having arrived in English, it gets an 
English pronunciation, I suppose, until and unless one of the numerous 
exceptions is attached to it.

Yes, even when a word refers to the same thing in two languages, i.e., is a 
cognate, that doesn't imply the word is pronounced identically in both 
languages. As between English and Spanish, for example, natural and popular 
are pronounced somewhat differently, and other words are pronounced a lot 
differently, as, for example, trilled double-r words as terrible and horrible.

And this doesn't even begin to notice regional or cultural variations in 
pronunciation. Linguistics is complicated and interesting.


Ken