[net.nlang] Mozart KV

ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) (02/26/85)

>The K does stand for KOECHEL (umlaut o), and does not, I repeat, does
>not, contain the letter R, although too many people who should know
>better have pronounced it "koerchel" for God knows how long.  It is also
>not pronounced "kershel", which is the other most common mistake.

    English does not contain the phoneme written in German umlaut-o,
    sometimes respelt `oe'. In case the author of the above remark is 
    unaware:

	1) Not every English speaker can accurately reproduce the
	   sounds of German.
	2) The English pronunciation of `ur' in `fur' is the closest
	   our language has to this German sound.
        3) Speakers of languages containing the umlaut-o sound
	   frequently use that sound to reproduce English's `ur'
	   in `fur'.

    If the author of the KOECHEL flame had wished to be constructive,
    s/he might have pointed out that the `ch' resembles the sound
    of `h' in `huge' more than it does `sh'...

-michael