Date: 9 Apr 2000 16:07:53 +0200 From: naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de (Christian Weisgerber) To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BSDCon East Message-ID: <8cq2rp$1n81$1@bigeye.rhein-neckar.de> References: <20000404152346.01398@techunix.technion.ac.il> <xzpn1n5q1ny.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <20000407102159.B8417@sofia.csl.sri.com> <38EE4C97.B9B83C7A@asme.org>
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Pedro F. Giffuni <giffunip@asme.org> wrote: > > I would like to introduce you all to a language where there is NO > > difference between spelling and pronunciation: Italian. > > I am not sure this is true: the "gn" in the word "gnomo" is pronounced > like the "ñ" in Spanish. But that's strictly regular. Yes, Italian uses a variety of digraphs. Remember the Roman alphabet was only really suited to writing classical Latin. For other languages, it's just a hack. > I also understand you (actually we, since in theory I am Italian > also) don't extrictly have a "z" since in Italian this is pronounced > "ts". 's' is [s] in front of vowels and voiceless consonants, [z] in front of voiced consonants. My tiny Italian dictionary also says it's either [s] or [z] between vowels according to no particular rules. I don't know whether this means that it's up to the speaker or whether you just need to know. Apparently the distinction is only phonemic, not phonemic, so there's probably little harm if you get it wrong. -- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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