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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