En réponse à Tristan <kesuari@...>:
>
> To make it hard for English-speakers to prononuce properly?
That must be it! ;))) Or maybe I had this strange idea that all *normal* people
would find it easier to pronounce final [e] than final [i] ;))) . I guess I'm
right there ;)))) .
>
> [1]: I realise it has historical validities, and probably present ones
> in Other Dialects (but there's no need to confirm that). It just
> sounds
> really bad when 'ay' is /&i/.
>
LOL. If only you English-speaking people could be a little more sensible and
have cardinal vowels in your sound inventory ;)))) .
>
> *Silent -r, but my sister when we were really young (before I was in
> school) thought it was the feminine and /&lIgz&:ndr@/ was the
> masculine.
>
If you pronounced the words correctly, there wouldn't be such a problem. My
sister's first name is /alEksa~"dRa/, and the /a/ definitely indicates feminine
gender (the masculine is /alEksa~dR/ :) ).
>
> Are these those things like 'to call off'? Other than the Germanic
> languages, what languages do them?
>
No, I meant plenty of auxiliaries like "can, may, will, do, etc..." used
quasi-mandatorily at every tense but the present tense.
>
> What was the date? How old a message am I replying to? :)
>
It was from last week IIRC :) .
>
> And don't think it stops anytime soon! My 88-y.o. grandmother (who is
> 'grandma', being my father's mother) assures me it hasn't stopped yet
> (or at least, a few years ago she did).
>
Hehe, when we stop learning, we're dead :)) .
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.