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#10827 11/19/00 06:09 AM
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Maybe someone can help me out with these 3 interrelated questions.
1. Is there a verb for what is done when a word is spelled out phonetically for the purpose of instruction in pronunciation, as following a dictionary entry? I am looking for a word that would take the place of the phrase here in brackets:
" If I were to (spell out phonetically, with diacritical marks and stress indicators to indicate pronunciation) that word, I would do so this way..."

2. How is the word "transliteration" used?

3.How would one (insert above bracketed phrase here) the stereo-typical New York accent as it presents itself in the phrase "Gorgeous as an orchid." It sounds something like this:
goo(r)chis as an oo(r)kid.

Thanks,
MM

One more: Any insight into why the spell-checker at this board is so odd? I mean, can anyone imagine ever misspelling MNEMONIC as MM?


#10828 11/19/00 06:27 AM
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The only query upon which I may be able to shed some light is that regarding transliteration. I've always understood it to mean tspelling a word from one language, using the letters of another. Shalom, for example is a transliteration from the Hebrew alphabet into the Latin. I suspect that vodka is a transliteration from the Cyrillic alphabet, as are names like Slobodan Milosevic, and Kosovo.


#10829 11/19/00 07:46 AM
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In response to your first question, the verb I am familiar with is "transcribe".


#10830 11/19/00 07:39 PM
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If you search (top left, next to Main Index, select all forums, all posts) on spellchecker or as it now known Enigma or even Aenigma, you will find some views on the device we have taken into our hearts.


#10831 11/20/00 01:50 AM
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metameta,
I'd love to know a word for your first question, but I think you'll have to coin it.

As Max said, transliteration is indeed moving the phonetics from one alphabet (or idiogramography[??]) to another.... which is why we in the "West" for so long mispronounced (and still do) Chinese names and place-names, for example... the transliteraters were, shall we say, sloppy.

..and yes, please do a search on our inimitable spell-checker, Ænigma. An entity unto itself, without peer.


#10832 11/20/00 05:15 PM
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the verb I am familiar with is "transcribe".

Spot on, ammelah!

According to Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: tran·scribe
Pronunciation: tran(t)-'skrIb
Function: transitive verb
.....
2 a : to represent (speech sounds) by means of phonetic symbols


Not the main meaning, but definitely good enough for me.


#10833 11/20/00 08:44 PM
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Max Quordlepleen states
I suspect that vodka is a transliteration from the Cyrillic alphabet

vodka is from the Russian word for water (voda) and is, I have read, shortened for Russian water of life– similar to aqua vita term used in Scandinavia. Both are a transliteration of Whiskey (uisge beatha–the Gaelic for water of life.)

Well that is a translation, since beatha has is its roots in the word for navel– and mean birth or beginning. And the Gaelic meaning is closer to constantly re-born. What in English would be a gerund– an continues state of being born.

It shows up again in the Erin go bragh (Ireland forever)


#10834 11/20/00 09:17 PM
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In reply to:

vodka is from the Russian word for water (voda) and is, I have read, shortened for Russian water of life– similar to aqua vita term used in Scandinavia. Both are a transliteration of Whiskey (uisge beatha–the Gaelic for water of life.)


Thanks, of troy. I had long known of "uisge" and its parallel in Scandanavian, but I did not know that aquavit and vodka were both derived from "uisge" Those drunken Celts and Picts sure got around!



#10835 11/21/00 06:13 AM
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So "transcribe" it is, then. I am mildly surprised that this particular kind of transciption does not have a unique name, considering that the people I imagine use it most often are those people who are most immersed in words and the naming of things and actions. Or, perhaps, when the lexicographer says, "Transcribe this list of words for me, Miss Jones," his helper would never have to ask just what he meant. But of course she would. "Transcribe them how, Mr.Smith?" she might ask, and to which he would reply, "You know, transcribe them phonetically."
Hm. Seems like they would have made up a word for it by now.


#10836 11/21/00 07:56 AM
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Hi,

I live in a country pretty close to Russia, I learned Russian for some time, and cannot imagine how vodka could inherit from "water of life" which, I believe, is (here goes, Polish is so close to Russian it would be a letter-to-letter transcription) "voda zhizny".

I would be very grateful (and I mean it) if you could just explain me how THIS came from "uisge beatha"?

Lukasz



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