Latin alphabet- why English pronounce it different

15.07.05, 13:03
Just curious. Why do English speaking people seem to pronounce vowels
differently than everybody else using Latin alphabet. Its astounding to me
that pronounciation of the simple "chaos" seem to sound the same in Rusia,
Portugal, France, Norway, Greece, Poland, Germany with exception of UK...why?
    • nooka1978 Re: Latin alphabet- why English pronounce it diff 15.07.05, 19:32
      do u know something about historical grammar of English? please find 'grimm's
      law' and u'll see that there are some specific chaneges in pronounciation, like
      in your example 'chaos ' ch is pron. like 'k' in grimm's law the sound is
      written like g(x)

      greeting, mellanie
      • chris-joe Re: Latin alphabet- why English pronounce it diff 16.07.05, 07:00
        incidently, French "chaos" is pronounced "kao"...
        • waldek1610 Re: Latin alphabet- why English pronounce it diff 16.07.05, 07:14
          Yes, but its stil "kao" -chaos, not "k-aas". I knew that french don't pronounce
          last s, as in "Degas"
          • chris-joe Re: Latin alphabet- why English pronounce it diff 16.07.05, 10:14
            cool, glad to hear, but... the French have also an awfully complicated set of
            vowels. Why, oh why!!! :)
            • kociamama Re: Latin alphabet- why English pronounce it diff 16.07.05, 12:24
              Well, actually a friend of mine, who's now a Ph.D of Arts and specializes in th
              French Language and literature explained to me once (I'm not sure if it's true,
              but still I think it a pretty logical explanation).

              Namely, the French have such long sets of letters, which stand for a single
              sound, because in the MIddle Ages, it was the church which dealt with education
              and studies, and it was monks that copied books. And as well all know, monks
              were greedy creatures, and they were paid per letter while copying;) And that's
              the explanantion (supposedly).

              Regards,
              KOciamama.
              • jan.kulczyk Re: Latin alphabet- why English pronounce it diff 16.07.05, 16:36
                Puhhhhleeeeze... kociamama even it's a joke, it's not funny ;)
                Watch out for that big fat lawsuit the Francophones are getting ready against you! (after they have dealt with the "failed language" Shintaro Ishihara that is) [BTW that was so funny! I knew the Japanese nationalism would never fail to amuse!]
              • ms.jones Re: Latin alphabet- why English pronounce it diff 16.07.05, 17:58
                The same explanation applies to English spelling - if early printers were paid
                by the letter it was in their interest to throw in a few extra ones. They
                had 'technical' problems with justifying the right-hand margin and were
                sometimes forced to use abbreviations. Being Dutch, they were quite laid back
                when it came to English spelling, not that there were strict rules anyway.

                Someone (Shaw?) suggested that 'ghoti' could be read as 'fish': gh [f] as in
                enough, o [i] as in women and ti [sh] as in nation. :)
Inne wątki na temat:
Pełna wersja