Monday, February 16, 2015
Vocalic meteor
Was reading a piece in Curbside Classics about a car that got poked by a meteor. The damage was unique ... you can tell by the way the metal is deformed and streeeeeetched that it wasn't hit by a car or tree or thrown rock.
There are only three reported car vs meteor collisions: the one in the article (a 1980 Malibu in 1992), an unnamed convertible hit in 1950, and a 1928 Pontiac hit in 1938. [Unfortunately no Comets or Meteors were hit.]
The 1938 incident happened in a town with a highly unusual name: Benld. That's an L, not an I. Named in a unique way after the founder BENjamin L. Dorsey.
Benld has to be the only word or name in the English-speaking world that honestly expresses a common phonetic tendency. Czech is always honest about vocalic liquids L,N,R. English is jammed full of vocalic liquids, but we always toss in a fake vowel or apostrophe so we can pretend it's not a vocalic liquid. Just a few exampLes: PaneLs, rattLed, puLls, sampLe, flatteNed, buRneR and keRneL. If we represented these sounds honestly, we wouldN't** be so puzzLed by Czech woRds!
= = = = =
** Admittedly some peopLe inseRt a real vowel in wouldEnt, couldEnt and didEnt, but that's not normaL.
LateR thought: There is one otheR woRd that represents a vocalic liquid honestly, but it's not quite fuLly at home in English. DiRndL.
Still, we can't possibly come anywhere near the contrived Czech sentence Strč prst skrz krk, can we? No chance. Well, not unless you weRe ordeRing the starship's captain to rub diRt on all the diRndLs that had been conveRted to handbags. Off by only one consonant, and equally contrived.
Labels: Language update
¶ 6:56 AM
