>>> Item number 8406 from WRITERS LOG9302C --- (33 records) ------ <<< Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1993 11:13:45 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: Word of the Day Hepburn: hoto pronounced: ho'to (with a little pause in between) Every day, in restaurants and coffeeshops in Japan, people order "ho'to" and the waitress happily brings it. American tourists order coffee, and the waitress looks puzzled and anxious, until someone says "ho'to". Derivation - the complete phrase is "ho'to ko-hee", but common practice is to shorten it to the hot. BTW - this is dark roast, european style coffee. If you want lighter coffee, ask for "ah-meh-ree-kahn". It won't be just like home (1 cup - to , and free refills are practically unheard of), but it will be somewhat thinner. If you happen to know a waiter or waitress, you might ask them how they would respond if someone obviously Japanese sat down and just said "ho'to". I'd be interested in the answer. Oh - also ask about someone saying "bu-ren-do" (like brando, except with an eh sound) - that's blend coffee, the cheaper mix that is commonly purchased. BTW - there is no "fee" phoneme in Japanese, which is why coffee turns into ko-hee. The set of five h phonemes is haa, hee, hoo, heh, hoe - with the hoo phoneme sometimes approaching fu (as in fuji), but that's the closest thing to an "f" there is. So some words are simplified to fit the local phonemes. -----------------------------------------------