MSGID: 1:153/716.0 71d41401   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 6716083e   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   AK>  Usually in English e, i, y tell us about specific pronunciation   
   AK>  of the syllable behind. For instance, "bit"/"bite", "kit"/"kite".   
      
             The final "e" tells us how to pronounce the "i" in your examples...   
   during medieval times, however, both letters may have been spoken aloud.   
      
      
   AK>  However in astrology   
      
             Or numerology, methinks....  :-)   
      
      
   AK>  every letter is important and they say can change the person's   
   AK>  destiny. ;)   
      
             Uh-huh.  In English, you can spell a family name "Smythe" & require   
   others to pronounce it "Smith".  Years ago I knew somebody who did that.  And   
   names like "Brown" & "Clark" may be spelled with or without a final "e".  The   
   spelling of one's name may or may not influence the audience's reaction.  :-Q   
      
      
    AH>  Pronunciations in English often vary from one time & place to   
    AH>  another... and I don't know where this name originated.  But   
    AH>  IMHO it's most likely the pronunciation changed & we never got   
    AH>  around to changing the spelling.  I'm told that's what happened   
    AH>  with e.g. "gnash" and "knife"....  :-)   
      
    AK>  It would be interesting for me to learn who threw "k" first and   
    AK>  why others started follow him. ;-)   
      
             I don't know who did it or when... the OED might tell us more about   
   that... but for native speakers of English, the initial consonants are rather   
   difficult to pronounce without adding a vowel when one follows immediately on   
   the other.  I'm reminded here of the Danish King "Canute" (as I was taught to   
   spell his name).  During the 11th century he was king of England.  But he was   
   king of Denmark & Norway too... and many historians nowadays spell it "Cnut".   
   While that may be more authentic from their POV I don't speak Danish....  :-)   
      
      
    AH>  I get the impression the upper classes in Russia preferred   
    AH>  French (which may have worked for them when they didn't want   
    AH>  the servants to get the drift) until they became disenchanted   
    AH>  with Napoleon, then carefully reconstructed what's now your   
    AH>  native language. The net result from my POV is that it's a   
    AH>  lot younger than my native language & doesn't include   
    AH>  complications like "silent letters"....   
      
    AK>  Yes, the French got a great impact on the Russian language,   
    AK>  but Russians did not accept those crazy silent letters. So   
    AK>  Bordeaux in Russia is just Bordo, and nobody suffers from it.   
      
             To my ears, however, the second "o" is elongated.  If your language   
   makes no such distinction I understand.  I have to keep reminding myself that   
   e.g. the word "venue" is pronounced differently in English & French....  :-))   
      
      
   AK>  in the USA they simplified English they could do the same. What   
   AK>  a lot of ink they could save! ;)   
      
             When the USA was established there were alternative spellings for a   
   large number of words.  They tended to choose the shorter & simpler ones, but   
   this theory doesn't necessarily work as advertised in practice... [wry grin].   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
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