Re: French spelling scheme

Hi!

I'm new to this list. However, I think the "silent l" idea for french
is quite funny. It would render the written language more logical,
with the disadvantage that you have to start reading the next word
before pronouncing "del" or "al". But that's a minimal inconvenience,
since in French it's virtually always necessary to read the next word
to see if there's a legation or not.

> But surely, on that argument:
> "du chataeu"
> "de l'homme"
> "vieux chateau"
> "viel homme"
>
> ..should also become:
> "del chateau"
> "del home"
> "viel chateau"
> "viel home"
Then, shouldn't it be "del chatel"?
The plurals also have silent l's, so it might be "dels" and "als"
instead of "des" and "aux". I think catalan and occitan have these,
so if the French people wanted a more logical language, they could
just go one step further and start learning them ;)

> [Thinks: Christophe, doesn't "home" suggest
> /om/ (helmet) rather than /Om/ "man" ?]
I think the same. And I don't understand why anybody should want to
write "hore". The first and the last letter are superfluous, and the
vowel is not pronounced that way. So: "omm" and "eur" lol

> There's no underlying /p/ in "trop" - the sound became utterly
> silent centuries ago.  But there is indeed an underlying /z/ (not
> /s/) in "pas" in that it is actually pronounced /paz/ in some
> contexts.
That's double-s: "pass" - after all, it developed that way.
So there could be two different words: "pas" and "pass".
Alternatively: "pa" and "pass" or "pa" and "pas".

At any rate, a spelling reform should abolish the final e, which is
never pronounced. Verb conjugation would be very much easier that way

passer: je pass, tu pass, il pass,
        nous passons, vous passez/s, ils pass.

Salu!
'aqratIyo'

 --
Martin Horsch
Mail: horsch@decagon.de
Tel: 0711-4799527
ICQ: 74765615

Nur der Mächtige, der Starke und Sichere ist gerecht.
Gott ist nur darum gerecht, weil er alle anderen an Macht
überragt und sich auf seinem Thron völlig sicher weiß.

   -- Silvio Gesell, NWO

´aqratIyo´'s pages:
http://www.decagon.de  (pentagon twice)
www.decagon.de/vulkan  (VFSRV - Vulkanische Föderation)
www.decagon.de/martok  (martaq tuq - Haus des Martok)
 --

Reply