A-B-C
I'm working on my final assignment for my Aztec class and I had to write an Aztec word I heard pronounced in a lecture. It is pronounced "Shou-co-ot" but it is spelled Xiuhcoatl.
This has bothered me for a really long time: if you're translating a language that does not use the Latin alphabet into Latin writing, why would there be silent letters? Why wouldn't it be spelled out phonetically?
If the language were already written in our alphabet there would be reasons for silent letters (pronunciation changes over time, etc.) but if you're taking a completely foreign language and writing it in your own alphabet why not sound it out?
This was a real problem for me when I studied Tibet because their language is written in the Latin alphabet in such a way that what you see has absolutely nothing to do with how it is pronounced. To read it fluently you need to learn a very complicated set of rules that tell you which combinations of letters say what.
It's not even like we're trying to come up with symbols for sounds that we don't have in our language.
What gives?
This has bothered me for a really long time: if you're translating a language that does not use the Latin alphabet into Latin writing, why would there be silent letters? Why wouldn't it be spelled out phonetically?
If the language were already written in our alphabet there would be reasons for silent letters (pronunciation changes over time, etc.) but if you're taking a completely foreign language and writing it in your own alphabet why not sound it out?
This was a real problem for me when I studied Tibet because their language is written in the Latin alphabet in such a way that what you see has absolutely nothing to do with how it is pronounced. To read it fluently you need to learn a very complicated set of rules that tell you which combinations of letters say what.
It's not even like we're trying to come up with symbols for sounds that we don't have in our language.
What gives?
posted by Bry at 12:27 PM
7 Comments:
Motecuhzoma‘s revenge.
Totally Motecuhzoma's revenge.
"You will not study us easily, you bastards!"
He really said that. I swear.
I thought it was pronounced Quitzacotol. Am I thinking of another name?
The only proper way to pronounce the words is to THINK about those silent letters while you aren't saying them.
People can sense when you aren't thinking about those letters (as a wild animal can sense fear) and the meaning of the word is changed in a subtle but alarming way.
Or, it all a crock of shit.
De
Lisa: you're thinking of Quetzalcoatl (feathered-serpent) I think, who is the god who went to the underworld to collect the bones to make humans of the fifth (current) sun.
I would have called you back but I got your message at eleven at night on the blue line...I was too busy keeping my keys in eye-gouging position so I could walk through the wonderland parking lot.
The Xiuhcoatl is the meteor-throwing serpent that Huitzilopochtli carries. The Mexica thought their golden idol was real and when the Spanish attacked they sent a soldier to get it and rain meteors down on the Spaniards.
Apparently it didn't work.
De: you know I think about that sometimes. When I say certain words I really am thinking the silent letter, but if I say it with and without the silent letter it really sounds the same. In my head it's really different though. So when people talk to you are you seeing it in some part of your brain in script? I air-type with my fingers when I talk a lot.
So does knight and night "feel" different when you say it?
It is all a matter of context.
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