Word: cornyn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...where once a soothsayer said he would become a teacher. Last spring Yale picked him off Ellis Island. Technically Shwe Waing is no teacher but a guide through the jungle of Burmese vocables. Every morning for an hour he produces them as ordered by Yale's William S. Cornyn, a Hnguistician (not a linguist, or talker of particular languages, but a student of the universal nature of all languages). Cornyn explains to the soldiers how to use their speech organs to reproduce even the most baffling of the Shwe Waing sound effects. He gives his students the meanings...
Each afternoon the boys have two hours with Shwe Waing, who is forbidden to theorize or explain. He just makes noises along lines laid down by Cornyn. The students talk back. If the back talk rings false, Shwe Waing calls for repetition until it sounds right to a Burmese ear. He can explain new words in terms of those already learned. The boys make careful notes of all sound effects in a phonetic alphabet, study them aloud in barrack dormitories, on the street, at meals. Bit by bit, somewhat as Burmese children do, but with the best of technical help...