Re: A break in the evils of English (or, Sturnan is beautiful)

En réponse à JS Bangs <jaspax@...>:

>
> How about English:
>
> wet [wEt]
> weight [weit]
>
> fret [frEt]
> freight [freit]
>
Except that the second one is always a diphtongue. Don't compare apples and
oranges. And you're talking about a language that can have |ei| pronounced [aj]
or [i]! At least in French, |ei| is only ever pronounced [E]. If another
pronunciation is meant, another spelling is used.

> And Greek used to have |epsilon|=[E] (or something similar) and
> |epsilon-iota|=[e:] as a general rule.  Neither of these are perfect
> examples, but I don't know a very large language sample, either.
>
The only thing I see is that you cannot find an example proving your point,
while I can find at least one proving mine. Even with a 1-0 score I win! ;))

>
> You've misunderstood my argument.  I wholly agree that |e| by itself
> is
> most likely [e].  However, given two different graphs |e| and |ei|, I
> would always always ALWAYS assume that |ei| was higher than |e|.
And you would be strange, as others have pointed out.

  This
> is
> because |ei| includes |i|, which symbolizes a high vowel.  To make |ei|
> be
> a *lower* vowel than |e| is very counterintuitive.
>
To you maybe, not to me.

>
> Of course, by "nearly everyone" you mean "Frenchies."  For the rest of
> the
> world, I think you're wrong, for the reasons outlined above.
>
And I think you are wrong, because people don't use logic to guess the
pronunciation of a spelling. I don't think *anyone* would ever naturally
connect |ei| to [e]. To [ei], [ej], [Ej], [eI], [E] for those who would assume
it's French, but never to [e].

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.