Re: German Spelling Reform (fwd)

Irina Rempt-Drijfhout <ira@...> wrote:

> It's not called a plural, though it's formed like it; it's called a
> "tussenklank" (intermediate sound) though it's not meant to be
> pronounced. What do you call a sound that isn't heard?
I don't know. A _koan_? You know, 'if a tree falls and there's nobody
around...'. BTW, _tussenklank_ is a terrific word... I'm gonna steal
it (in parts, probably).

Spanish has the silent <h> everywhere, often in places where Latin
(or the original language in any case) didn't have it. There's this
terribly stupid rule that says that word-initial /w/ *must* be
preceded by <h>, so _hueso_ and _=F3seo_ are from the same root (it
begin with long /o:/ in Latin, diphthongized to /we/ in _hueso_,
but kept like /o/ in the cultism _=F3seo_.)


--Pablo Flores