Re: Silent E

Hi!

"Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...> writes:
> German's orthography is fairly consistently phonemic, but there
> are a few exceptions.  Because Standard German does not have
> geminate consonants, a pair like "Nachttisch" (nightstand)
> and "nachtisch" (nightly) are homophonous, the second <t> in
> <Nachttisch> not being pronounced.
Well, but these two are not, since the first a is short, the second
long:

  Nachttisch  [naXtIS]
  Nachtisch   [na:XtIS]

But your point is still correct.

I cannot come up with good, real, words, so I compose some which
would be understood:

  Wachtag    [vaXta:k]    day of awakeness
  Wachttag   [vaXta:k]    observation day

Stupid words, but the point should be clear.

**Henrik

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