Dragaera

evolution in language: OT.now on topic

Tue Feb 8 13:38:05 PST 2005

--- Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> wrote:

> Jerry Friedman wrote:
> 
> > I like it, but I don't believe it.  Google has no relevant hits for
> > "Pablo Saves", "Roberto Saves", "Pancho Saves", or "Paco Saves".
> > (There are too many false positives to check "Juan Saves" [an
> > incident from Byron] or "Pedro Saves" [Christmas].)  So I doubt very
> > much that "Saves" is a Spanish surname.
> 
> I remember an advertisement for The Bill Dana Show where he complained
> that
> a Fire Hose was a sign telling them to fire Jose Jimenez.  I didn't
> think
> the joke worked back then.
> 
> It's funny when an American says "His name isn't Jesus, it's Hey-Suz.
> Except Mexicans pronounce Jesus Christ the same way.   It's odd that
> Anglos
> don't use the name Jesus.

"Hey-sus"!  There's no [z] sound in most dialects of Spanish except
before a voiced consonant (as in "machismo", at least in American
Spanish).

I think the given "Jesus" is rare or nonexistent in most languages
other than Spanish.  Unless you count "Joshua" as an equivalent.

Jerry Friedman


		
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