Re: Tiktaalik

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>:

> I have a different question: pronunciation. One should think that how 
> to pronounce *Tiktaalik* is quite obvious, except maybe where to put 
> the stress. But the article explains the pronunciation as "tic täl' 
> ik". What is that supposed to mean? It's one of those English 
> dictionary transcriptions, right?

Yes.  Grr.  Why don't they just use IPA?

Just pronounce the vowels like a normal person (i.e., a 
non-English-speaker) would.  My Inuktitut's a little rusty, but I think 
the doubled "a" just means the vowel is long--literally long, as in 
held out longer, not "long" like English "long" vowels are "long".

--
Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan

"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
    --Edwin H. Land