Re: Place names

[CJ FINE <cbmvax!uunet!BRADFORD.AC.UK!C.J.Fine>]

Ivan:

>
> I would also very much like to learn how exactly you carried out your
> research which showed that Japanese speakers would find it easier to
> learn to pronounce the consonant {j} than syllable-final {p}.

I think your obvious annoyance is betraying you into nonsense, Ivan. "j"
is well within the phonetic range of the Japanese phoneme /J-/ (as in
"jibun", ("zibun" in kunrei-siki)).

>
> >  For Hungary, the official name is "Magyar".  We are respecting the people
> >  of that country by calling it la magiar.
>
> You are insulting the people of that country by claiming that her
> official name is "Magyar", whereas in reality it is "Magyarorsza1g"
> ("a1" is a-acute), pronounced {m@#@rorsa:g}, where {@} can be equally
> fairly rendered as {a} or {o}, {#} as {gi}, {di} or {dj}, {:} denotes
> length, and the stress is on the first syllable.

You are right, but again "insulting" is inaccurate, and a product of
your emotion.

> Not really.  First, they will have no use for the lojbanised name.  I
> would always prefer to pronounce a name from my country in the natural
> way, in quotes, rather than make it into a cmene, which in a huge
> number of cases will mean distorting it beyond recognition.  Second,
> one can always call his own country `my country', and get away with it.
>

As you have pointed out at the beginning of your mail, if you are
talking to a foreigner in that foreigner's own language you will
normally refer to your own country in the form it is named in that
language.

                        kolin