In a message dated 8/29/2002 3:03:56 PM Eastern Standard Time, revkayak_at_mtaonline.net writes: > ... By the way, many now spell 'Kootznoowoo' the way it is supposed to be > pronounced -- 'Xootznoowoo'. The 'x' is underlined and pronounced much like > the German hard 'g'. ... A "German hard 'g' "? As opposed to a German soft 'g'? I never really thought about having more than one 'g' in German. A hard 'g' as in "guten Tag"? Actually, I guess, the 'g' in "guten" might be considered softer than the 'g' in "Tag", which is usually pronounced pretty much as if it were a 'k' (in most European languages; at least in those where the 'k' has not morphed into the counter intuitive pronunciation 'ch' -- as in 'tsh' -- in local dialects), sort of like in "guck mal", where the "guck" ends up sounding remarkably like "cook" in most regions of the Federal Republic (with some exceptions in both the new and the old states) at least. I assume that the pronunciation of the 'x' here is in no way related to the way the Mexicans almost leave it out when talking about their country? Or is there perhaps a similarity to the Arabic letter "ghain", often transliterated from Arabic script as 'gh', with the 'h' acting as the softener to the 'g' in analogy to the German (and Arabic) HARD 'ch', which is NOT "tsh", but often written in transliterations as 'kh', a very throaty, Germanic sort of sound? No, I guess not, we were looking for a hard sound. And you thought that a mere 27 Alaskan languages were tricky?!? ;-) Before I jump off at the deep end, though, what's the closest equivalent in English to that "German had 'g' "? Best regards, Ralph "the Kraut" Hoehn Ralph_at_PouchBoats.com www.PouchBoats.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Aug 29 2002 - 15:51:52 PDT
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