Adding a letter, was: Silent E
| From: | Vasiliy Chernov <bc_@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, October 5, 2001, 15:49 |
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On Thu, 4 Oct 2001 22:54:03 EDT, David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>
wrote:
> I don't think a language
>ever created an orthography with the intention of, say, adding a letter
that
>had a sound in some positions which would make no sound if you put after
>another vowel but would change that vowel, like English's silent "e"; these
>things just happen over time if your orthography doesn't keep up with the
>sound changes.
IIRC, the umlaut dots in German originate from superscript {e}, still
earlier simply {e}, denoting the modified vowel quality. OTOH it may have
stemmed from {ue} standing for the umlaut of {uo}, both being originally
diphthongs, later monophthongs. I am not sure if Middle High German {ae}
(umlaut of long {â}) and oe (umlaut of long {ô}) were intended to denote
diphthongs at some point.
If you consider consonants, English {gh} was indeed invented to denote
the specific English sound lacking in Old French. OTOH this invention
rested on a long established tradition of using {h} as a modifying
letter in Old French and other Romance langs.
Basilius
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