LINGUIST List 6.130

Mon 30 Jan 1995

Qs: Sound change, Grassmann, Punctuation in speech, Oral history

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1. Naomi Nagy, hypercorrection as cause of sound change
2. , Q: Grassmann's Law
3. "Dewi W. Evans", Written signs transferred to speech
4. Marjorie Parker, searching for oral histories/China

I'm trying to find some concrete examples of sound changes taking place in a
language due to non-native speakers adding in sounds that they think belong in
the target language, but doing so incorrectly. For example, American English
speakers talks about peppers called [habaNeros] (where N = enya), because enya
is a "typical Spanish" sound, even though the word in Spanish is [habanero].
Similarly, "empanadas" are empaNadas in the Phillipines. One other example is
English speakers talking about [viSiswa] for "vichyssoise" because of the
general rule against pronouncing final consonants in French.
 I'm looking for evidence that these things become grammatical and
change the language, at least in the non-native-speaker community. Anecdotal
evidence is welcome, but anything that's really firmly grounded would be most
 wlcome.
 Please reply to nagyunagi.cis.upen.edu, as i'm not a regular reader of
Linguist.

Thanks,
Naomi Nagy (U Penn)

I am trying to collect any references on Grassmann's Law
in Indic (Vedic, Sanskrit, etc.), in particular work published
after 1980. I am interested in historical (Indo-Europeanist)
work as well as work in phonological theory of any variety.

I will post a summary.

Alexis MR

I'm curious to know if anything has been written on the transition of
some written signs into speech.
 For instance:

 We used to believe that "real" men didn't show their emotions

 could, I think, be expressed in speech as:

 We used to believe that real - in quotation marks - men ...
or
 We used to believe that quote real (unquote) men ...
or
 by 'imitating' double quotation marks with one or two fingers of
 both hands when pronouncing 'real'.

One can thereby distance oneself from the opinion expressed, and
employ it to convey irony (i.e. those aren't really the real men!)
 Another example would be the use of the word 'period':

 Elvis was the greatest there ever was, period.

i.e. no more discussion necessary.
 While I presume this originates in North America I've also heard
it used a few times by British or Irish people, even though a period
is referred to over here as a full stop.
 Another case would be the use of 'underline' to mean 'emphasize',
which is paralleled by German 'unterstreichen' and French 'souligner'.
 Has anything ever been written on this topic, or can anyone think of
other examples from any language?

Dewi Evans (Dewiollamh.ucd.ie.)

To recipients of the Linguist List:

I am searching for oral histories on minority nationalities in China,
especially oral histories of the Jews in China. References or contacts
for this topic or individuals working on it would be greatly
appreciated. Also, if you know of any articles etc. about discourse
analysis of Chinese or a minority language in China that too would be
greatly appreciated.

email: parkermgusun.acc.georgetown.edu