LINGUIST List 6.420

Thu 23 Mar 1995

Qs: Wayana, Luganda, Accents in L2, German phonology

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1. Eric Bjorn Seversen, The lanuage Wayana
2. George Huttar 709 2400, materials to learn Luganda
3. , queries

 I am in very interested in getting hold of any
dictionaries, lexicons, or any other material on the Wayana
language. I am not sure what language family Wayana belongs
to, but it is spoken among the Amerindians in French Guiana,
Suriname, and Northeastern Brazil. If anyone has any info.
that would help me respond to: ebs3bvirginia.edu. thank you in
advance. Erik Seversen.

 I'm inquiring for a somewhat linguistically savvy undergraduate who
 will be spending this June - November in Kampala: What is there
 available in the way of books, a/v materials, courses, whatever for
 learning Luganda?
 Thanks.
 George Huttar
 huttarsil.org

In a reference I can no longer identify, I recall coming across
an assertion that the accent with which East Indians speak
english arose as a result of the teachers of english in India
during the major period of British colonialism there were from
Wales. As a result, Indians were originally taught english with
a Welsh accent, a happenstance of linguistic accidnet perpetuated
through succeeding generations. Is ther any truth to this? Does
anyone out there know the origins of this?

Further -- are there any studies on characteristics of national
accents in foreign tongues (eg. is there a relationship between
the characteristic accent with which Italians speak english and,
say, the way in which they might speak Russian; or the English
person's accent in speaking Spanish or in speaking French, for
instance).

FINALLY -- a medico-linguistic query. In older medical text-
books which listening to the chest with a stethoscope, the
physician is instructed to tell the patient to enunciate
"ninety-nine." This actually makes very little sense. The
origin apparently is from an early translation from the German in
which the German term-equivalent used in the original text for
what was translated as "ninety-nine" does involve strong
expirations and so is a useful tool in examination. Again --
does anyone out there have any info on this?

To complicate things further -- I am a biologist and not a
linguist and am NOT on this list! So I would greatly apprciate
it you could communicate with me directly:
 SHODELLAURORA.LIUNET.EDU

Very many thanks for reading this far and for any help you might
be able to offer -- Mike Shodell