Re: English diglossia

Joseph Fatula scripsit:

> The words that are homophonous in one dialect are not in others.  If they're
> spelled the same in one place, then in places where they're pronounced
> differently, people wouldn't have a clue what word was meant.  They wouldn't
> even be aware that a distinction was made.
RI allows for slight differences in spelling, like eether vs. yther for
"either".  In general, though, it is designed to make maximal distinctions,
potentially more than any single dialect actually does.  In addition,
a few new distinctions are introduced:  instead of having both the
present and the past tense of "read" spelled alike, the past becomes
"red", which is far less likely to be confused with its homonym.
In particular, RI is rhotic, because rhotic dialects separate words
that non-rhotic ones merge.

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_