Re: OT: Re: Why do people in the UK put a u in the word color?
On Mon, 2006-04-17 at 10:36 -0500, Mike McCarty wrote:
> Andrei Popescu wrote:
> > On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 21:32:48 +0300
> > Andrei Popescu <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>I agree. And the resulting text is not so unintelligible if you are
> >>used to phonetic spelling.
> >
> >
> > Like the Romanian language has. (Just to be clear)
>
> Are you sure? Many native speakers of languages *think* they have
> phonetic spelling when they do not. I have, for example, had
> conversations with several Russians who believe that Russian
> is spelled phonetically. Phonetic means for each symbol there
> is exactly one sound associated,
I'm 99.9% sure that, in this case, "symbol" can mean "one or more
letters". After all, how do you distinguish between "long vowel"
and "short vowel"?
> and for each sound there is exactly
> one symbol. Many speakers of Spanish believe it is spelled
> phonetically (at least for the Madrid dialect) with just a few
> exceptions (like the "silent h"). This is quite untrue, but
> usually requires pointing out some counterexamples.
>
> As an example of the latter, the "s" is pronounced "z" before
> "m" and "d", like in "desde" which is pronounced "dezde"
> (meaning, roughly, "since"). I've had an argument one time with
> a fellow from Spain on this point, and until I got another
> speaker from Spain to listen, he wouldn't admit he had a
> Catalan accent because he pronounced it "desde".
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson, LA USA
"A wise government knows how to enforce with temper, or to
conciliate with dignity."
George Grenville, British prime minister
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