Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 13:48:11 EST

From: Undetermined origin c/o LISTSERV maintainer

owner-LISTSERV[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU

Subject: Re: Respelling



I think this respelling is going on mostly in archeological contexts

(certainly, "Inca" isn't a term that is used often outside history

or archeology, except in Peru, where it's part of national history and

pride, and the brand name of a popular soft drink), and you might do

best to ask someone working in that field.



I will note that something similar happens with transliterations (for

example, "Mahomet" has become "Mohammed" or "Muhammed"), with the

apparent goal being to get closer to how the word or name is pronounced

in the original language/alphabet. It's complicated, of course, by

the diversity of pronunciations for a given spelling--both Arabic and

English have enough dialects that a standard transliteration from one

to the other will always be somewhat arbitrary.



Vicki Rosenzweig

vr%acmcr.uucp[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]murphy.com | rosenzweig[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]acm.org

New York, NY