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Re: [MR] Corinthian leather




Poster: edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)

> Actually, the official name of the region is not "Mancha" but
> rather "La Mancha."  I can't think right off hand of another
> example of that, so I will assume that to be an exception.

The only examples I can think of are in the New World:
la Havana
el Peru

Some place-names that take an article in English are:
the Congo
the Netherlands
the Sudan
the Ukraine
the Yukon

I am told by a private correspondant that "la mancha" also
means "the stain" in Spanish, indicating that Cervantes may
have been making some sort of pun.
Also, there is a famous bull-fighter known as El Cordobez,
so probably the correct way to render "Maria Isabella the
Cordobese Woman" would be "Maria Isabella la Cordobeza"

> > BTW, the name of the town should have a mark over the first
> > 'o' to show the accent is on the first syllable, whereas the
> > similarly-named car, having no such mark, has the accent on
> > the second syllable.
>
> Except for the fact that the car uses the name in English, which
> does not have accent marks.

It's not a fact that English automobile names never have accent marks.
Consider the Volare.

>                             (I think you're still right about how
> the car is pronounced, however, I think it is a result of American
> murdering of the pronunciation.)

I distinctly remember Ricardo Montalban explaining to Johnny Carson
that he was told to pronounce it cor-DO-ba in the commercial, and
that he decided it was really a different word that just happened
to be spelled like the Spanish place-name.  Can it really be called
murder when it's the car-makers themselves who decide how to say it?

>                                   Generally, when it is hard
> to write the accent marks, such as in e-mail, the accent mark
> is assumed.

Certainly when I write my by-name, "el Bufon", in e-mail the accent
over the "o" is assumed.

-- Alfredo
 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com
______________________________________
He hade vpon vche pece,
Wypped ful wel and wlonk;
The gayest into Grece,
The burne bede bryng his blonk.
Whyle the wlonkest wedes he warp on hymseluen --
His cote wyth the conysaunce of the clere werkez
Ennurned vpon veluet, vertuus stonez
Aboute beten and bounden, enbrauded semez,
And fayre furred withinne wyth fayre pelures --
3et laft he not the lace, the ladiez gifte,
That forgat not Gawayn for gode of hymseluen.
   "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"

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