Comments on: Kofi Annan and Edward Stourton http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/kofi-annan-and-edward-stourton Language in a word Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:08:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Á÷Ë®Ïß http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/kofi-annan-and-edward-stourton#comment-712 Á÷Ë®Ïß Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:58:43 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/archives/23#comment-712 <strong>Á÷Ë®Ïß...</strong> Á÷Ë®Ïßרҵ³§ÉÌ£¬Á÷Ë®Ïß¹©Ó¦ÉÌ£¡... Edit: Can anyone read this? (Is it a Chinese character set?) Á÷Ë®Ïß…

Á÷Ë®Ïßרҵ³§ÉÌ£¬Á÷Ë®Ïß¹©Ó¦ÉÌ£¡…

Edit: Can anyone read this? (Is it a Chinese character set?)

]]> By: Graham Asher http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/kofi-annan-and-edward-stourton#comment-519 Graham Asher Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:37:07 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/archives/23#comment-519 Even now I find myself thinking that Lord (Noel) Annan, that Widmerpool made flesh, has somehow been resurrected when I hear the name Annan, although he died in 2000. Perhaps pronouncing Kohfi Annan's surname with the stress on the last syllable is an unconscious disambiguation? Even now I find myself thinking that Lord (Noel) Annan, that Widmerpool made flesh, has somehow been resurrected when I hear the name Annan, although he died in 2000. Perhaps pronouncing Kohfi Annan’s surname with the stress on the last syllable is an unconscious disambiguation?

]]> By: Abdul http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/kofi-annan-and-edward-stourton#comment-315 Abdul Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:24:41 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/archives/23#comment-315 Pronouncing names in foreign languages is a real problem. With the effort of guidance and training news readers get from the BBC Pronunciation Unit, still they can't "master" all the sounds and the "phonotactics" of other languages. I heard the Arab name /fahmi/ (typical English pronunciation will be /fa:mi/) being pronounced by someone as /faxmi/. The reason is that English cannot have /h/ in syllable-final position. So in the his/her attempt to realize a such a sound they use /x/ (which they are familiar with in "loch" and "Bach"). Similarly the Arab news-readers (including those working in the Arabic Section of the BBC) pronounce the name Kohfi Annan as /ku:fi 9ana:n/ (/9/ stands for a voiced pharyngeal fricative). The reason for this pronunciation is not clear. It could be in analogy to the Arab name /9anan/ (also /ku:fi/ is a name attributed to the place name Kufah). Pronouncing names in foreign languages is a real problem. With the effort of guidance and training news readers get from the BBC Pronunciation Unit, still they can’t “master” all the sounds and the “phonotactics” of other languages. I heard the Arab name /fahmi/ (typical English pronunciation will be /fa:mi/) being pronounced by someone as /faxmi/. The reason is that English cannot have /h/ in syllable-final position. So in the his/her attempt to realize a such a sound they use /x/ (which they are familiar with in “loch” and “Bach”). Similarly the Arab news-readers (including those working in the Arabic Section of the BBC) pronounce the name Kohfi Annan as /ku:fi 9ana:n/ (/9/ stands for a voiced pharyngeal fricative). The reason for this pronunciation is not clear. It could be in analogy to the Arab name /9anan/ (also /ku:fi/ is a name attributed to the place name Kufah).

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