Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 295
3.4 Treatment of the lateral release ([t1] ([d1])
6 tokens: Bolli, Halla, Erla, Páll, Þorkell, Karl
4 choices: /-to-/, /-Q-/, /-Qto-/, /-#-/
as with the nasal release, the lateral release also exists in English.
It is transcribed [t1] or [d1], as in the words bottle, middle, and is
transliterated [bo to ru] and [mi do ru] in Japanese. ‘t’ and ‘d’ occur
in the spelling, too. In Icelandic names, ‘t’ and ‘d’ do not appear in
the spelling, and it remains to be seen whether Japanese and
Icelandic speakers include [t] and [d] sounds in the Japanese pro-
nunciation of these Icelandic names. Even though the lateral
release does not exist in Japanese, it does exist in transliterated
words from English. Therefore, Japanese subjects are likely to
insert [t] in Icelandic words, as they do for English ones, regardless
of the fact that ‘t’ does not occur in the spelling. Once again, as a
CC sequence is not possible in Japanese, a vowel has to be insert-
ed after each consonant. Therefore, [t] and [d] will become [to] and
[do], in Japanese pronunciation, i.e. Bolli → [bo to ri]. Here, also,
the use of geminate /Q/ is taken into consideration, yielding four
possible pronunciations per name.
results
unlike with the nasal release [tn], no clear tendency could be
observed for words with the lateral release [t1]. as Table 4.a shows,
every pattern was chosen at least a few times, and no possible
option was altogether rejected. In every subject group, however, /#/
(nothing inserted where there is a lateral release) was the least pop-
ular choice. Japanese subjects showed a preference for the insertion
of a geminate /Q/. Interestingly, although the Icelandic subjects
most commonly chose /#/ in the nasal release [tn], with [t1] there
were several that chose to insert /Q/. Quite a number also inserted
[to]. This implies that when names are transliterated so as to follow
the original pronunciation closely, names with a nasal release such
as Birna should be rendered /bi ru na/ without insertion of [to] or
[tto] (/Qto/), whereas names such as Erla, should be transliterated /e
ru to ra/ or /e ru Q ra/ or /e ru Q to ra/, but not /e ru ra/.
KaOru uMEZaWa
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