Monday, October 4, 2010

How to say Cosette

I have come to the point in which I have given up telling people my name. To me it sounds simple to say but whenever I meet someone new, they without fail, no matter where they are from, mispronounce it. They do not mispronounce it once, however, they actually never really learn to say my name and even some,like Dr. Jerskey, misspell my name. Some even continue to mispronounce and misspell my name after knowing me over 10 years. There has even been instances in which I would go to a Jamba Juice, state my order, usually something with raspberries, and then have to state my name for the order, only to receive my order moments later by being called Jose. So, I hope with my explanation both the people of Nagaland, my fellow classmates and my linguist professor will be able to properly pronounce and spell my name. To a linguist I would describe my name by saying the first syllable of Cosette is has the onset of a voiceless, velar stop, with a rhyme of a mid, back vowel, "co". The next syllables onset is a voiceless, alveolar fricative, with a rhyme of a mid, front vowel, "se". The last syllable is the consonant that is a voiceless, alveolar stop. [kosɛt]. For a non-linguist, I would say for them to stop their air stream briefly then let it go, while making a k sound while having the back part of your tongue in the mid position, "o" sound, which when both these sounds are said together, they should sound like the first syllable of coke. Then for them to say the next part of my name "se" they would have to put the front part of their tongue right behind the above upper teeth, on the bony ridge of the tongue, to say the "s" sound then for them to say an "eh" sound using the back part of their tongue in the mid position, which should sound like the first syllable of said. Finally, to finish pronouncing my name, one should again put their tongue behind and above their upper front teeth on the bony ridge, to make a "t" sound, like the last syllable of set.

1 comment:

  1. you sound pretty frustrated with people's inability to learn your name. i actually really like your name. for one of my classes we had to give a name we really like and the name that came into my head was yours. btw i couldn't stop laughing at the part where you mentioned that people at jamba juice would end up calling you Jose lol

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