Re: Russian orthography (was: A perfect day ...)
| From: | Vasiliy Chernov <bc_@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, February 3, 2000, 17:40 |
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On Thu, 3 Feb 2000 10:38:44 -0500, John Cowan <jcowan@...>
wrote:
>French is unusual (I think) in having three distinct semivowels, /j/, /w/,
and
>/h-upside-down/, related to /i/, /u/, and /y/ respectively.
- Not so unusual. Mandarin Chinese is another well-known example.
>I think that /h-upside-down/ occurs only before front vowels in French.
- The situation in French was like that before 18th century. Now it's
different.
Cf. the forms of some verb like 'tuer': _tuant_, _nous tuons_, etc.
I am not sure about the combination _u-ou_, though.
Christophe?
Basilius