Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 4 of 5 1 2 3 4 5
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Different animal, different languages, same name.

Yep, I was just hoping you'd expound. Thanks! Fascinating stuff.


Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
February 1st is Aardwolf Day. It's their attempt at revenge against the aardvark for slipping in ahead of them in the dictionary.


#121772 02/02/04 05:17 PM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79
H
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
H
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79
A final /d/ devoicing to became a final /t/ is not all that strange. They're both alveolar stops. Now, a /g/ going to a /dZ/ is a little more strange, but still within the bounds of what could be expected in phonological change.

I think it's a spelling pronunciation. The Irish name for Saint Bridget is "Bríd", which in older times would have been spelled "Brighid", the "gh" being a voiced velar that exists in very few languages I know*. If you apply English pronunciation rules to that spelling, you get /brIdZId/, the spelling of which can then be nativised to English as "Bridget".

For comparison, take the case of the American name "Caitlin" pronounced "Kate Lynn". "Caitlín" is the Irish spelling of the name "Kathleen", and is pronounced "Kat(h)leen". But at some point a spelling pronunciation arose and what was originally an "error" became a name unto itself.

*I hear this sound when Arabic speakers say "Afghan" or "Afghanistan" - the "f" sounds like a "v" and the "gh" sounds like a voiced "h".


Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Funny. I heard it differently.

Saint Anne,
Saint Anne,
If you can,
Send a man.

Amen.


#121774 02/02/04 08:11 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
F
addict
Offline
addict
F
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
I've long been meaning to ask, just how does one grind a hog?

I try to not think about HOW, but when you end up with this (http://www.hot-dog.org/Photo13.htm) it is hard to argue with the results!

Also, I do not recommend Googling for "sausage photos" unless you are prepared to learn more about a sexual fetish that I, for one, would rather have never known existed. [shudder]


#121775 02/03/04 12:16 AM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, of the American Meat Institute, Los Angeles was the biggest hot-dog eating city in America in 2001, with 36,591,904 pounds purchased in supermarkets. New York was second at 33,275,920 pounds. 20,238,994 pounds were sold in the San Antonio/Corpus Christi area (4th in the nation), 16,700,872 pounds were sold in Dallas/Fort Worth (6th in the nation) and only 11,511,176 pounds in Houston (10th in the nation). It is interesting that three of the top ten hot dog sales areas in the country are in Texas.



#121776 02/03/04 12:35 AM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Since the thread started, I've had this earworm
http://www.just-lyrics-4all.com/Long_as_I_Can_See_The_Light_Lyrics.html
This is the time of year I suffer most from itchy feet, longing for palm trees and warm ocean breezes. Gonna have to do something about that...


#121777 02/03/04 02:10 AM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
J
veteran
Offline
veteran
J
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
But surely, somebody would pronounce Brighid /brIgId/. The h after the 'g' stopping the sound from affricating.

When I tell folks here about this they miss the irony.

The 'gh' in Afghanistan is supposed to be a voiced velar fricative. The preceding 'f' assimilates by voicing.

And the 'gh' in ghost is there because Caxton put it there.


#121778 02/03/04 03:20 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Los Angeles was the biggest hot-dog eating city in America in 2001, with 36,591,904 pounds purchased in supermarkets. New York was second at 33,275,920 pounds.
yeh, but....NYC has over 3 times the population of LA--
(that offical populations.. NYC's day-time/work day population is almost 2times its offical population--i am going to presume the % of illegal population is about the same) so on a per capita basis, NYC consumption of hotdogs is actually way below LA-- and perhaps on par with houston.
(same is true for crime statistics.. NYC had 33 more murders in 2003 than LA-- but with 3 times the populations, NYC's rate of murder per capita makes it one of the safest cities in US.--(and NYC has about the same number of police officers as LA--and we have UN and all its delegates--but then our cops aren't as busy solving murders.)


#121779 02/03/04 09:44 AM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79
H
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
H
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79
But surely, somebody would pronounce Brighid /brIgId/. The h after the 'g' stopping the sound from affricating.

Certainly, but in the old spelling, the h would have been represented by a dot (séimhiú) over the "g", which I can't reproduce here, so I wrote it as a "h". It would really have appeared as "Brigid" with a dot over the "g", and in practice, the dot was often left out.

I wonder if there is any connection with the Germanic names "Birgit" and "Birgitta", or if they are from a different origin?


Page 4 of 5 1 2 3 4 5

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,271
Members9,179
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV, Heather_Turey, Standy
9,179 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 397 guests, and 3 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,502
LukeJavan8 9,915
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5