From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu Jun 18 2009 - 11:46:17 CDT
On 6/18/2009 8:01 AM, Hans Aberg wrote:
> I think it does not have anything with the age of the word to do,
Certainly it's independent of the word "to do". :D
I think you meant:
"it does not have anything to do with the age of the word "
I still disagree with you.
It very much depends not only on "age", but also on the "time" of
adoption. The current fashion for geographic name is to follow the
preferences or usage of the "owner" of the name (Beijing for Peking).
For other borrowings, many more readers are familiar with orthographic
conventions of the source language, and that has an effect on how
quickly (or slowly) the orthography of loan words is homogenized.
That said, each language has its own style of dealing with loan words,
and each loan word follows its own trajectory in that process. Arguing
about supposed inconsistencies isn't going to help, what matters is how
the locals go about using that term.
A./
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