Re: Country names

Joe wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Stone Gordonssen" <stonegordonssen@...>
>To: <CONLANG@...>
>Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 5:11 AM
>Subject: Re: Country names
>
>
>
>
>>>No, everyone else can't say Australia properly, and it has a very
>>>obvious pronunciation from its spelling :P
>>>
>>>
>>Obvious? In English? A language where one can findl orthography to make
>>_ghoti_ be pronounced [fIS]? :P
>>
There are rules to the English orthography. Many words can have an
obvious pronunciation. Just because the rules are often complex and some
more common words have exceptional spellings doesn't mean that there
aren't rules...

>Only we can't.
>
I agree, but your explanations aren't perfect.

>  |gh| is a diagraph found only at the end of syllables, for a
>start.
>
ghost

>And is only [f] in the tesseragraphs(is that right?) |augh|[&f]
>
unless you speak properly, when it's [a:f] :P

> and
>|ough| [Qf], and [Vf].  |o| is only pronounced [I] in |women], and |ti| is,
>again, only prounounced [S] in the tesseragraph |tion|[S@n].
>
>
More generally than that, e.g. ratio. It does need a vowel after it, though.

--
Tristan                  <kesuari@...>

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