Re: USAGE: How to tell syllables apart (was: Announcement: New auxlang "Choton")

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 00:21:59 -0000, caeruleancentaur
<caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:

>Did I miss something?  It seems I read in recent messages:
>1) "ss" if in different syllables, "ß" if in the same syllable.
>2) How do you tell if there are two different syllables?
>3) If it's "ss," then there are two different syllables, if "ß," then
>they are in the same syllable.
>????????????
Well, 3) is obviously nonsense, so I'll tell you how I learned in elementary
school how to tell syllables apart:
1) If it's at the end of a word (or at the end of a compound), then it's
just one syllable and thus always "ß".
2) In the middle of a word, you look at the word's origin. E.g.:
- Is "heißen" (to be named) derived from "heiß" (hot)? No, it is not, so the
syllables are "hei-ßen" (and NOT "heis-sen"), and thus you use a "ß".
- "messen" is derived from "Maß" (or the compound "Meß-"), and thus the
syllables are "mes-sen" (and NOT "me-ßen").

Now, after the insane reform, these simple rules cannot be applied anymore,
and you have to listen closely each time if there is a long vowel involved
or not - which is too strenuous for the most, and thus they either stay with
the old, simple rules or always write "ss".

--
Pascal A. Kramm, author of Choton
official Choton homepage:
http://www.choton.org