Re: Umlauts (was Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad)

Quoting Remi Villatel <maxilys@...>:

> Douglas Koller, Latin & French wrote:
>
>
> > Noël, maïs /mais/ (vs. mais /mE/)
>
> Correct.
>
> > if the feminine of "ambigu" or "exigu" were written without tréma, it
> > would yield "ambigue" (/a~mbig/) and "exigue" (/egzig/). To retain
> > pronunciation of the "u", tréma is added:
>
> This is correct too, but...
>
> > ambigüe (a~mbigy), exigüe (/egzigy/)
>
> False !
>
> ambiguë [a~bigy], exiguë [Egzigy], aiguë [egy]
>
> The tréma is on the "e". There is no "ü" (u tréma) in French, although it
> would be much much more logical!
Hey, the thought of putting a trema on the not to be pronounced vowel is nifty!

But now, I assume _exigu_ too is to be pronounced as [Egzigy] - why insist on
having a separate orthographic form for the feminine?

Answer - French couldn't bear being more sensible than Meghean, which has
silent "h"s indicating definiteness on quite a few words. :)

                                                      Andreas

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