LINGUIST List 4.75

Sat 06 Feb 1993

Qs: Latin, Kpelle, Yiddish, Grammar, Phonology

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. ALICE FABER, Neo-Latin Neo-Plurals
2. Istvan Kenesei, Speakers of Kpelle
3. , Yiddish
4. , Course for grammar-disabled students
5. John T. McCranie, Intro to Phonology?

Has anyone else heard confusion as to the appropriate plural of the automobile
Lexus?? While driving home this evening, I heard a commercial on WCBS radio
(NYC all news), read by the regular news announcers. One used the plural Lexi
(but vacillated as to whether the final syllable is [i] or [ai]), while the
other used Lexuss (with geminate [ss]). At the end of the commercial, the Lexi
user ad-libbed the question "And when you see [the dealers], ask them what the
plural of Lexus is."

Alice Faber
Faber%LennyVenus.YCC.Yale.edu

Tom Ernst from the University of Delaware, who is not currently on this
list, would like to find native speakers of Kpelle, a Mande language in
the northern Liberia and southern Guinea region. If you know of anyone,
please contact him directly at: ternstbrahms.udel.edu
Thanks.

The other day a friend asked who my chiropractors were and, in
responding, I became aware of having just uttered what sounded
like a Yiddish expression (I think an off-color one) heard long
ago; can anyone clarify this? My response was 'Cox and Hazen',
where the second name is pronounced [hejzn], stress on first
syllable.
 Thanks. By the way, thanks also to all those who responded to
my earlier query about advising a student who wants to study
sociolinguistics and political language.
Mimi Klaiman

I would like to ask for help in formulating a course for the
coming year. We seem to be exempting more and more students
from the language requirement (arriving at the intermediate-
mid level on the ACTFL scale) for various disabilities. 80%
of those exempted are for "lack of grammar knowledge".

As part of a modern language department (I'm actually trained
in historical linguistics, though I've taught an intro to
linguistics survey; I primarily teach beginning and intermediate
language courses) I and a few colleagues are trying to formulate
a response to the problem. They would like me to turn an
introduction to linguistics course (which basically duplicates
a course taught in a Speech Pathology department for majors)
into a grammar course. I have already altered the course to
include *Landmarks in Linguistic Thought* (Harris and Taylor's
Routledge book) in order to make the course less technical;
I'm not quite sure whether teaching and drilling pedagogical
grammar will in fact assist these students.

Any reactions? Are any of you having similar problems? I'm
open to suggestions. Please answer me and I will summarize if
there is interest.

Thank you!

Leslie Morgan (MORGANLOYVAX.BITNET or MORGANLOYOLA.EDU)

Friends,

I am looking for pointers to an introduction to phonology.
If you can provide references for good books/tapes etc., I would
appreciate it.

Thanks,

-jtm

John T. McCranie jtmcorte-madera.sds.slb.com
Portability and Coding Standards
Finder Graphics Systems, Inc. (415) 927 - 0100
5725 Paradise Dr. (415) 927 - 2923 (fax)
Suite 100
Corte Madera, CA 94925 Cloud & Mountain