Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!news.mathworks.com!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!kimbark!deb5
From: deb5@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Acquisition of phonemes thfough foreign influences
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: midway.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <DFMHp5.E20@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: The University of Chicago
References: <44023j$l4b@newsbf02.news.aol.com> <4421gg$2r3@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 15:58:16 GMT
Lines: 41

In article <4421gg$2r3@agate.berkeley.edu>,
Coby (Jacob) Lubliner <coby@euler.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:

>Isn't curious, though, that in such words as "chutzpah" and "chanukah"
>the digraph "ch" was adopted for an approximation to [x], with all of
>its potential for misreading, rather than the more usual "kh"?
>
>The only languages I know of in which "ch" at the beginning of a
>word sounds [x] are Polish and Czech.  Why would one of these be the
>basis for the English spelling of Hebrew, or rather Yiddish, words?
>(In Hebrew the accent in both words falls on the last syllable.  The
>conventional English pronunciation, with the accent on the first
>syllable, is the Yiddish one.)

	(Accent on the initial syllable is a common Germanic feature.
Whether English-speakers say HAnukkah because they are imitating 
Yiddish speakers or because they are applying general rules of pro-
nunciation to a foreign word is open to debate.)

	I suspect Classical influence.  That is, Greek X (i.e. chi) 
was romanised by none other than the Romans by "ch."  Greek borrowings 
into English continue to follow this pattern.

	"Cherub", like many Hebrew words, was borrowed first into Greek,
thence into Latin and/or English.  Thus, a precedent was set up for 
romanisation of Hebrew [x] as "ch" in English.  "kh" as a diagraph used 
in English romanisation of Hebrew and Yiddish is a relatively recent 
development and may not have been "more usual" when "chutzpah" was first 
borrowed.  Also, since many Americans (especially Jews) were formerly
literate in German, its influence is a factor.  (In modern German, 
"chutzpah" is "Chuzpe".)  

	In fact, the pronunciation [x]/[h] is equally unusual for both 
English "ch" and English "kh".  ("ch" is normally [tS] or [k]; kh is 
normally [k], e.g. khaki, khan, Khmer, Khartoum).


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
