Re: Estimation of latin words in German

"Peter" == Peter T Daniels <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Peter> LEE Sau Dan wrote:
>> >>>>> "Peter" == Peter T Daniels <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> writes:
>>
>> >> BTW, I've seen people write/say "worser", which doesn't make
>> >> sense to me, either. :)
>>
Peter> Some general (probably a Civil War general) is famous for
Peter> saying that you win battles "by getting there fustest with
Peter> the mostest." (That's "firstest," not "fastest," of
Peter> course.)
>> What's the origin of this "fustest"? A dialectual word?

Peter> Obviously. Did you never hear English spoken by Englishmen
Peter> in Hong Kong? They have something called "non-rhoticisim,"

I pronounce "first" that way, too.


Peter> which was imported to certain US dialects, and how else
Peter> would you spell "firstest" to indicate the
Peter> non-pronunciation of the r?

Obviously not "fustest", because that would be too similar to
"fastest" and hence would be confusing.

I would use "firstest", with a note that the "r" is silent. There is
simply no way to indicate vowel quality in a _reliable_,
accent-independent manner with English spellings.

For those who know German: föhstest. :)


--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
.

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