Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
> Are there any French words other than _aiguë_ where
> an _ë_ is used to indicate that a preceding _u_
> is pronounced [y]?
Yes, there is one: "ambiguë". We should use "-güe" instead which would be
more logical.
> Are there any French words that contain _gg_
> pronounced [gZ]. BTW are there any words
> with [gZ] at all?
I don't think so. No [gZ] but [gz] in French. And if I encounter an italian
word with "gg", I would instinctively pronounce it [dZ].
arpeggio [aRpEdZjo]
> I read that the only words where _à_ is used
> are _à là çà_,
That's true and "çà" is even very seldomly used. It's a bit old fashioned.
("çà" = "hither".) While "ça" without accent ("that" or "this") is very common.
> and _ù_ is used *only* in the
> word _où_. Is this correct?
I've never thought about it... but that true. A very strange feature of
French IMHO. There is a reason: To differenciate "ou" (or) from "où"
(where). But that's still strange.
> (Thought: French keyboards oughta have a key
> for the whole _où_ sequence! :)
No, we already have "à" and "ù" directly accessible also they are so rare in
French. That's well known that the keyboards follow a strange logic of their
own.
You should have spoken about the 101 ways to write [o] in French. ;-)
See ya,
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Remi Villatel
maxilys@normandnet.fr
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