Tuesday, July 09, 2013
Language update for Asiana
Professor Polistra hasn't gathered the usual pile of language oddities, but decided to run a Breaking Update to take immediate note of an unusual phenomenon.
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Asiana: the airline responsible for the seawall 777 crash.
Amazing example of phonetic permutation. Almost every possible combination of the first four symbols has been heard.
The first A could be /æ/ or /eɪ/ or /ɑ/
The S could be /s/ or /z/ or /ʃ/ or /ʒ/
The I is either silent or /i/
The second A could be /æ/ or /ɑ/
Total permutations: 3 * 4 * 2 * 2 = 48, and nearly all have been used.
What is the correct or intended pronunciation? It's written in Korean news articles in a way that feels like a 'foreign word', even though the name was probably invented by the airline:
아시아나
which would be ah-see-ah-nah
or equally ah-shee-ah-nah.
(In Korean and Japanese, /s/ before /i/ tends to palatalize into /ʃ/.)
= = = = =
Few days later: CBS reporter Carter Evans gets it exactly right. Everyone else is still all over the phonemic map.
Professor Polistra hasn't gathered the usual pile of language oddities, but decided to run a Breaking Update to take immediate note of an unusual phenomenon.
= = = = =
Asiana: the airline responsible for the seawall 777 crash.
Amazing example of phonetic permutation. Almost every possible combination of the first four symbols has been heard.
The first A could be /æ/ or /eɪ/ or /ɑ/
The S could be /s/ or /z/ or /ʃ/ or /ʒ/
The I is either silent or /i/
The second A could be /æ/ or /ɑ/
Total permutations: 3 * 4 * 2 * 2 = 48, and nearly all have been used.
What is the correct or intended pronunciation? It's written in Korean news articles in a way that feels like a 'foreign word', even though the name was probably invented by the airline:
아시아나
which would be ah-see-ah-nah
or equally ah-shee-ah-nah.
(In Korean and Japanese, /s/ before /i/ tends to palatalize into /ʃ/.)
= = = = =
Few days later: CBS reporter Carter Evans gets it exactly right. Everyone else is still all over the phonemic map.Labels: Language update
¶ 6:07 PM
