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To: Coleus

Felix Navidad!


2 posted on 12/29/2015 5:32:12 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (I shot Schroedinger's cat with Chekhov's gun.)
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To: Jeff Chandler
Some languages don't allow you to put the consonants together without vowels in between (so the Japanese version is Kurisumasu).

Well, slightly misleading, from a philosophical point of view, since they don't have an alphabet, but rather a syllabary, with a separate symbol for the syllables, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, for example.

Also, it's pretty much impossible to say a consonant without a trailing vowel sound of some sort, like "duh", or "deh", so it's just a different way to organize things. I took Japanese at the local community college for two years in an evening class, and I recall a student asking the ( Japanese ) teacher, Why don't you say the "ooh" in "su" ? ... which they use for a trailing "s" in transliterations, as well as many Japanese words. The teacher insisted that they DO say it ... we just can't hear it!

But I wanted to mention a segment in the Huntley Brinkley report from the sixties, about the increasing popularity of Christmas in Japan. At the conclusion Brinkley intoned: ( and those who remember him can imagine his distinctive pacing )

"In America ... people complain that Christmas ... has lost its meaning.
Here ... It never had any."

Good night, Chet.

Good night, David.

7 posted on 12/29/2015 6:01:27 PM PST by dr_lew
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