Re: Real language questions

Mighnt't you be getting confused between "protozoan" (member of the order
protozoa) and protozoon (a specific protozoa)? I'm sure they're 2 separate
words.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nik Taylor" <fortytwo@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 3:48 AM
Subject: Re: Real language questions


> Ciege Engine wrote:
> >
> > [Im needing this information for school spelling team.
> > help is most appreciated!]
> >
> > 1. How can the word protozoon be pronounced
> > proh-toe-ZOE-an?
>
> Presumably by analogy with other -an/-on words.  Final -an or -on tend
> to be pronounced with a schwa.  Actually, unstressed vowels in general
> have a tendency to become schwa ESPECIALLY in final syllables, so if one
> pronounces that word as four syllables, it's pretty much inevitable that
> the second part will be schwa.
>
> > 2. Why did modern englih drop the pronounced -ed
>
> We did?  :-)  We never dropped the -ed, just the vowel.  :-)  Well, some
> speakers do drop the /d/, too.  But at any rate, it's because it was
> unstressed, the vowel became /@/, just like in rapid speech, people tend
> to say /plis/ for "police"
>
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