Date:    Wed, 13 May 1998 13:34:09 -0400
<br>From:    Larry Horn <laurence.horn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALE.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: Beijing /j/
<br>
<br>At 11:27 AM -0500 5/13/98, Matthew Gordon wrote:
<br>>Adding to the list of hyperforeign pronunciations, I recall hearing a
<br>>radio newsperson speaking of Gorbachev retreating to his "dacha" which
<br>>was pronounced with  the velar fricative [x] in place of the palatal
<br>>affricate [tS].  Is there a general pattern of opting for Germanesque
<br>>pronunciations of Russian words vs. Frenchified versions of items from
<br>>other languages?
<br>
<br>I don't know if that one is really representative of a pattern so much as a
<br>(wrong) guess that -ch- in transcriptions from the Russian is a variant of
<br>the -kh- used for the actual velar fricative [x] in Russian transcriptions.
<br>If there's any influence from German here (or from Scottish, for that
<br>matter; cf. loch) it might just be in the use of -ch- for [x].  Perhaps the
<br>German-style [ay] pronunciation of -ei- in e.g. "Brunei" as signalled by
<br>Don Lance is a similar phenomenon:  it's not so much thinking that "Brunei"
<br>is really a German name, or a name otherwise to be Germanicized, but
<br>thinking that -ei- is in general a representation of [ay].
<br>
<br>Larry
<br>