Re: Latin vowel inventory

Quoting Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:

> Quoting "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:
>
> > Quoting Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>:
> >
> > > So in the English one, was long a pronounced as ay, long e as ee,
> > > long i as igh? Was long o oo (boot) or oa (open)? And was long u
> > > ue (hue) or or ow (how)?
> >
> > Indeed.  When an American legislature adjourns without setting
> > a date for reconvening, it adjourns "sine die" [saIni daI] -
> > a direct reflex of the Great Vowel Shift.
>
> Is there any particular reason for dropping the second final -e, but
> not the first one?
Not sure. The phrase is pronounced as one word, and thus might be
less likely to elide internal vowels than a final unstressed schwa.
It might also simply be due to "die" looking exactly like a native
English word.

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Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
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