Re: URL: Paper on English spelling reform - the case against in the Internet age
Nice list Christian! One of my favourite irregularities is how <gaol> and <margarine> break the rule of "G is only pronounced as J before E, I or Y".
On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:07:59 +0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber <naddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"To contradict" but "to indict". Spread throughout the lexicon there
are words with unexpected silent letters, e.g. "aisle", "sword",
"solder". And the occasional monster such as "coxswain" or "gunwale".
Did you know "waistcoat" used to be pronounced "weskit"? It had been broken down to that, without spelling change; then people presumably learnt the word from writing and started pronouncing in a more regular fashion according to the old spelling which was closer to the etymology.
(I'll graciously leave out the problems posed by semi-integrated
French loans. "Lingerie" takes the cherry.)
One of my favourites. In its worst version it is "lonjeray"; even "lonzhery" seems wrong to me. I always manage /'læ~Z@ri/. ;) One of the touchstones of class is the pronunciation of <garage>: the upper middle class is supposed to be /g@'rA:Z/ and the working class is supposed to be /'gærIdZ/. My (lower middle class) pronunciation seems to be /'gærA:dZ/... a compromise?
And just
how do you say "Excel" (as in the spread***)? Everybody says
/'Eksl-/ around here, but I would expect it to be like "to excel".
Correct: /Ek'sEl/
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