Comments on: Colombia ~ Columbia ~ Colombo http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/colombia-columbia-colombo Language in a word Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:04:18 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: John Cowan http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/colombia-columbia-colombo/comment-page-1#comment-8695 John Cowan Wed, 13 May 2009 22:48:51 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=323#comment-8695 Looks like the schwa letters dropped out of my posting. <i>Colombo</i> is ['kol@mb@], writing @ for schwa. Looks like the schwa letters dropped out of my posting. Colombo is ['kol@mb@], writing @ for schwa.

]]> By: Keith Mundy http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/colombia-columbia-colombo/comment-page-1#comment-8626 Keith Mundy Mon, 11 May 2009 11:57:37 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=323#comment-8626 Colombia, in my experience, is typically pronounced the same as Columbia, and for that reason is often misspelt as Columbia. I've never seen Colombo (often pronounced Columbo as in the detective series, including by Sri Lankans) confused with either of them. Colombia, in my experience, is typically pronounced the same as Columbia, and for that reason is often misspelt as Columbia.

I’ve never seen Colombo (often pronounced Columbo as in the detective series, including by Sri Lankans) confused with either of them.

]]> By: Joh http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/colombia-columbia-colombo/comment-page-1#comment-8601 Joh Sat, 09 May 2009 23:29:57 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=323#comment-8601 Wikipedia says that the name of the capital is locally pronounced [ˈkoləmbə], and is a borrowing into Sinhalese and Tamil from Portuguese, which in turn borrowed it from Classical Sinhalese. I do not know where the stress falls in other European languages. Penultimate stress may reflect analogy with one of the other two (both ultimately from <i>Cristoforo Colombo</i>, of course), or if it is particular to English, the general English rule "When in doubt, use penultimate stress." The discrepancy between <i>Col</i>u<i>mbia</i> and <i>Col</i>o<i>mbia</i> ultimately goes back to the Proto-Western-Romance vowel shift. If Columbus was indeed from Genoa, though, he apparently would have pronounced his name [kuˈɹuŋbu], but this must be a further sound-change in Ligurian specifically. Wikipedia says that the name of the capital is locally pronounced [ˈkoləmbə], and is a borrowing into Sinhalese and Tamil from Portuguese, which in turn borrowed it from Classical Sinhalese. I do not know where the stress falls in other European languages. Penultimate stress may reflect analogy with one of the other two (both ultimately from Cristoforo Colombo, of course), or if it is particular to English, the general English rule “When in doubt, use penultimate stress.”

The discrepancy between Columbia and Colombia ultimately goes back to the Proto-Western-Romance vowel shift. If Columbus was indeed from Genoa, though, he apparently would have pronounced his name [kuˈɹuŋbu], but this must be a further sound-change in Ligurian specifically.

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