Re: Cambodia v. Kampuchea

From: *** T. Winter (***.Winter_at_cwi.nl)
Date: 11/28/04 

Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 03:19:12 GMT

In article <41A889A9.6170@worldnet.att.net> "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@worldnet.att.net> writes:
> *** T. Winter wrote:
...
> > A very wrong transcription you can find in Turkish for the Belgian city
> > Brussels. It is shown as "Brüksel". It starts with the French name,
> > omits the silent last syllable and transcribes "x" as "ks", which is
> > illogical at the least.
>
> If the last syllable is silent, why would it be represented in a
> transcription?
>
> How would you render [ks] in the Turkish alphabet other than as <ks>?

But the 'x' in 'Bruxelles' is not pronounced as [ks] but as [s]. The 'x'
is a strange letter in French with many different pronunciations, as an
example, in 'Auxerre' is is pronounced as [z] (and I do not even talk
about the 'x' as used in Wallonia (*)). And the 'u' is pronounced
as [y], so there they are correct. The Turkish name is a mixture between
translitteration and transcription. 

---
(*)  Walloon 'xh' is historically pronounced [x], in Wallonia there are
about 33 places of which the name begins with this combination.
By the way, offhand I do not know *any* French word where the 'x' is
pronounced as [ks].
---
 > >                                                     As in the example
 > > above, where in the French name "Bruxelles" the "x" is pronounced as
 > > a sharp "s".
 > 
 > In German, "sharp s" means 'long s'. What does it mean in French?
I meant [s].
 > > And to recap from previous messages:
 > > 1.  Belarus is a transliteration.
 > >     Byelarus is a transcription to English.
 > 
 > Which would be pronounced ['bajl@ruws].
Not ['bjel@ruws]?
 > 
 > >     White Russia is a translation.
 > > 2.  Cote d'Ivoire is a transliteration.
 > 
 > One doesn't "transliterate" from an alphabet to itself.
What do you call the dropping of diacritics?  Or any other method to
render letters with diacritics to (a series of) letters without
diacritics?  As in German 'ü' -> 'ue'?
 > 
 > >     Côte d'Ivoire is the original name.
 > >     Ivory Coast is a translation.
 > > 3.  Moldova is the original name.
 > >     Moldavia is an English rendition (and there are such in quite a few
 > >     languages).
 > 
 > The English name of the country seems to be Moldova; but I don't know
 > for sure, so I didn't comment on this one earlier. "-avia" is a somewhat
 > productive suffix in English, cf. Moravia, Belgravia (the neighborhood
 > of Belgrave Square, London).
I just checked my reliable Philips' Modern School Atlas from 1941.  It gives
the name as Moldavia.
-- 
*** t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj  amsterdam, nederland, +31205924131
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn  amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~***/