questions & comments

[Richard Walker]

Rowland writes:
 > >In my favorite example, the basketball coach at Duke Univ is Mike
 > >Krychevski (that isn't right, but is close).  This is pronounced
 > >Sheshevski.  He is clearly Russian or Polish, and when his ancestors came,
 > >the Cyrillic chars were just re-written into the American
 > >(Phoenician-English) letters

 > I'm not sure I believe this: how come the leading letter (pronounced sh, I
 > gather) is written `K', but the `k' towards the end of the word is
 > pronounced `k'?

Actually, it's pronounced more like Kshershevski; that's how Polish
works - the `Kry' is pronounced as a unit, not as three individual
letters.  The v might originally have been a w (which is pronounced
like the English v).

I had to sing in Polish for a performance of Karol Szymanowski's
Stabat Mater (sorry, not as a soloist).  Get yourself a copy of Simon
Rattle's wonderful recording and study the words while listening to
the music . . .

K's are even harder to figure out in Swedish . . . but that's another
story.  I haven't been paying much attention to this thread, but it's
now getting *way* off topic . . . .