Ray Brown wrote:
> Exactly! Both French & English spellings basically reflect how the
> language was spoken some 7 or 800 hundred years ago. But the preservation
> of older spellings has in its turn affected pronunciation. For example, in
> English "waistcoat" had become pronounced 'weskit', but the Victorian
> bourgeoisie that this too vulgar so the spelling pronunciation no prevails.
> When I was young (chronologically) everyone called a _tortoise_ a "tortus"
> - now I often hear ['tO:tOjz} - ach!
All this talk of waistcoats and tortoises reminds me of Lewis Carroll
for some reason :-).
> I imagine in fact that if a sound is at all humanly possible some language
> somewhere in the world will have it.
Any langs with voiced or voiceless whistles?