The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Re: a dispute

Re: a dispute
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Thursday, July 14 2011, 7:27:16 (UTC)
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Jeffrey wrote:
>If you can get me a picture of the plaque in Surath (our language IS phonetic, you know), and hopefully with vowel markers, I will transliterate it properly for you.
>
>P.S. Is the plaque only in English, or in our language as well?

...seems like we should have something in our language as well....maybe her name? My beef with the "a" vs "u" sound is that I can't think of a single instance when we pronounce "tum", in English, when it is written "tam". If it has that "a" we pronounce it AS "a", never as "u". Seems to me the vowel sounds are clear...I remember everyone I ever heard say her name say it as shUM i rUM....and not the other way, though Marcello's version is plausible.....however I also think "u" is more visually appealing than "a"...more exotic....it's important to me because I don;t want to carry on with ANY possible errors made by our taxi-driving ancestors...call me a snob....but we stopped eating humans some time ago, so why can't we fix this little problem?
>
>_______________
>pancho wrote:
>>we're getting ready to have the bronze plaque to the Shumirum Monument engraved and we've run into a controvery as to how "Shumirum" should be spelled. Everyone I know insists that the correct spelling is "Shamiram". But I say no one pronounces it ShAM-i-rAM"....we all say ShUM-i-rUM. I insist that a taxi-driving immigrant barely decent in English vowel-sounds gave us that spelling, while we all went on pronouncing it with a "u" sound and never with an "a" sound.
>>
>>We are a hide-bound people....I'm even told that I'm not a linguist so who am I etc.
>>
>>I'm asking for any instance when "tam" is pronounced TUM...when the "a" is pronounced like it was a "u"...so far nothing....so I don;t see why I should continue an error like it was sacred tradition.
>>
>>Anyone who actually knows English would never have spelled "Shamiram" if he HEARD us say SHUMIRUM...and we ALL pronounce it as if it was spelled SHUMIRUM....no?



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