Re: Phonetic contrast between lenis unvoiced and lenis voiced?

ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Oct 16, 8:32 pm, "benli...@xxxxxxxxxx" <benli...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Oct 17, 1:44 pm, "ranjit_math...@xxxxxxxxx"
<ranjit_math...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Oct 16, 2:32 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

And what if one comes across a word where one has no idea what its
etymology is?

What do you do when you have no idea which European language a word
came from? Assumptions, often incorrect, are made resulting in the
wrong set of phonological rules being applied.

Not phonological rules, but rules deriving pronunciation from
spelling.

When Pinochet is pronounced to rhyme with ricochet, aren't French
phonological rules being applied?

Not necessarily. It seems that Chileans themselves are somewhat undecided on how to pronounce names like this -- [pinotSet] or [pinotSe] or [pinoSe] can all be heard there, apparently depending on register and social class. I've forgotten the details, but there was a discussion of this on Language Log some time ago.

The same apparently applies to their current president, Michelle Bachelet.

So it's hardly surprising that the English-speaking media can't seem to decide which of these pronunciations to use.

[...]

John.

.

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