Re: "Useful languages"
| From: | Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Thursday, February 14, 2002, 20:09 |
|---|
On 14 Feb 02, at 2:43, Danny Wier wrote:
> Modern Greek uses some really strange diagraphs.
You think? But on the whole, it's pretty regular -- if you see a word
written, you're pretty sure how it's pronounced. Even the word accent
is marked.
About the only thing which is uncertain are <mp> <nt> <gk>, which can
be [b]/[mb]/[mp], [d]/[nd]/[nt], and [g]/[Ng]/[Nk], respectively.
So I wouldn't claim it has "complex rules of orthography and
phonetics". You just have to get used to things such as <oi> = [i].
On the other hand, you don't necessarily know how to spell a word,
given its pronunciation. See, for example, the six ways to spell the
phoneme [i]. Even Greeks get things wrong, especially <e> and <ai>
(which are both [E]) in endings such as -ete vs -etai.
Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@...>