Re: Two questions about Esperanto

--- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
All the African orthographies I've come across use |w|
to denote /w/.
OK -
you're say they're English based.  But is this really
true.  I know of
none that base the use of vowels on english practice.
----------------------------
I always found it very strange to see "Wagadugu"
written "Ouagadougou" on every map of French origin.
When I see this orthograph, I feel like pronouncing
"Ou-a-ga-du-gu", which is false. "Wagadugu" would be
quite right. From a general point of view, I think
that "w" is all right to figure the English sound "w".
Sure, in German and Polish, "w" is something else (but
every normal French journalist will pronounce the
German "w" as if it was an English one, like in
"Ludwigshafen", where he will also pronounce the
sequence "sh" as in "Sheffield", and the "fen" as in
"Fenwick", and yet add the stress on it - this
sentence is too long, what did I want to say ?) Well,
anyway, "w" is ok for me, and I wished Esperanto had
used it.

In Dutch, "w" is still something else, something close
to the French semi-vowel "u" in the words "bruit" or
"nuit". (But who cares ?) I definitely vote for "w",
well, not "that" W., of course.


=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


		
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