Re: THEORY: more questions

First of all, thank you all for your answers!

Now it is Nov 26, 2003, 6:40pm so I "prewrite" this email. The last answer
on my question I got on Nov 25, 2003, 9:02pm. That means of course I cannot
quote from mails after this. Curiously, the spam filter of my freemail
provider I let my emails run through has sorted out some answers, especially
the original question by me and the first answer by Mark :(

>> Finally, of course the diaeresis symbol (two dots above) is used for
>> other things in other languages.
E.g. in German, originally it was an e over an a, o or u. That's why today,
in crossword puzzles and seemingly in Swiss road names (but only there), you
must write ae, oe, ue for ä, ö, ü. The es-zett is replaced with "ss".

>> >   h.. The optional question that I actually should be able to look up
>> >   on the internet myself if I'd know where: Why is German e.g. <ei>
>> >   pronounced [aj], <eu> and <äu> [oj] and <ie> [i:]? Or even more odd,
>> >   /a_u/ changes to /oj/ in the plural: [ha_us] > ["hojz@]. Or
sometimes,
>> >   <chs> is pronounced [k_s], and sometimes [xs]. Is it because of some
>> >   sound changes during the middle ages?
>>
>> Yes, indeed.
I've still no clue what I sould enter into Google...

>> Sounds like /n/, /l/, and /r/ do not require an active vocal
>> fold gesture; the vocal folds vibrate spontaneously as a result of the
>> articulatory arrangement required to produce those sounds. Sounds
>> produced with this "spontaneous voicing" are sonorants.
So if I get you right, sonorants are syllabic consonants.

>> Yes.  The sounds of the language changed, the writing system didn't.
That cries for an orthography reform, doesn't it? No... just fun. The last
one was in many parts bad enough.

>> Optative fits fairly well. The optative form of a verb X means something
>> like "want to X".
That fits it. I guess I can use the mentioned "purposive" too, I've just got
to explain what I mean with it because as said this term might be mixed up
with other meanings.

>> > I'm sure there'll be more things I don't know what they mean or how to
>> > do... I won't stop annoying you MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH ... now, the last
bit
>> > was just fun ;o)
>>
>> Keep asking, please. It's good to ask, and I can't think of very many
>> better places to ask than here.
Oh yes, of course!

>> <<I deleted all those "Weekly Vocab" Mails, but then I saw these mails
are
>> aids for inventing words ... a discipline I'm not very good in, too. How
can
>> I tell the server to send me all those first "Weekly Vocab" mails from 1
to
>> the current number (30)? Or have I to search the archive and download
that
>> stuff by hand? I mean, that's not difficult, but boring and getting this
>> delivered by email would be more comfortable. >>
>>
>> I have all of them (except 27 I think).  I can forward them to you if you
>> want.
Yay! That would be great! Thank you!!!

>> It would be thusly interesting, weren't it for the fact that in most
variants
>> of German, incl Standard Modern High German, this diphthong is rounded
thru-
>> out. Duden gives the pronunciations as [Oy] - most other dictionaries and
and
>> textbooks I've seen give [OY] or [O2], but all agree on rounding
thru-out.

I didn't look up the pronounciation. In my orthography Duden, there are no
pronouciation aids at all! The only dictionary for looking up the
pronounciation
of German words that comes in mind is my mother's PONS/Collins English <=>
German dictionary pronounciations are given for both languages.

>> objects of prepositions
I guess these are "adverbial qualification of place"?

Carsten

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