Ali
7 posts
Sep 15, 2008
10:58 AM
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Why is it some words start with a silent "g" and others with the same sound start with an "n"? The same could be asked about the silent "k," although I find the g more interesting.
How is the beginning sound in the word "gnat" any different than in the word "nice"? Why not spice things up and spell "gnice"? Or pronounce "gnat" as guh-nat or gee-nat?
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TheMudge
The Real Mudge
2978 posts
Sep 15, 2008
2:15 PM
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Do not ask for logic from English spelling. Consider "ough," which has different sounds in through, tough, bough, ought, and cough. If yew wont fonetik spelling, yew wood haf ta rite lyk this.
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Rich Turner (The Curmudgeon Himself)
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Endi
379 posts
Sep 15, 2008
2:59 PM
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Actually, there is a type of metamorphic rock called "gneiss" which is pronounced exactly like "nice".
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Ali
10 posts
Sep 16, 2008
5:03 AM
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Mudge, your phonetic spelling reminds me of my linguistics course. We had to rewrite words using the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). The problem was, even this alphabet allowed discrepancies for accents and different dialects. I'm going to have to add "gneiss" to my list of interesting words. Thanks, Endi!
Last Edited on 16-Sep-2008 5:20 AM
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Pogo
588 posts
Sep 17, 2008
8:56 AM
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Have a look at "Meihem in ce Klasrum," published in 1946.
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