Re: OT: Slightly OT: French as a second language

In a message dated 11/21/01 5:14:01 PM, dnsulani@ZAHAV.NET.IL writes:
[snip]
>Not to mention all the word _initial_  /h/'s that don't get pronounced
>in
>Israeli Hebrew! Or the final "alephs", or final " 'ayin"s that most people
>here don't pronounce! It probably _does_ make sense, using to the
>pronounciation that existed at the time the spelling (of which dialect?)
>was codified.
Is it just initial /h/? What about medial? Final "he" not being pronounced
doesn't bother me, since that was never pronounced anyway (except when it has
a dagesh), but just used to indicate the feminine /a/ ending. The other cases
bother me though ... both the Ashkenazic and the Sephardic pronunciations
traditionally included /h/ right? Then again ... there have been many
immigrants who spoke Spanish and Russian, neither of which has /h/. Maybe
that's why. Or maybe it's just one of them darned sound changes. Alas :-(

Josh Roth
http://members.aol.com/fuscian/eloshtan.html

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