Re: Hamsters

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_GNM9NZoqfZzFrfOgl-JtPZKu2EqnEFvVxK5N43taFBNCssGdvG8wS7w3wD3aQ>
Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2005 18:46:17 -0000

> "Zed" just sounds silly and inconsistent with the pronounciation
of
> other letters

"Inconsistent"????

You don't seriously imagine that *consistency* has anything to do with it, do you??? Really?

This is a language that mixes Saxon, Norse, Norman French, Latin (by at least three routes), and Welsh. Oh, and some Dutch, I believe, though I'm not sure why. And you expect consistency???

>It also confuses things with your inexplicable use of "zed"
> instead of "zero".

Never even heard of that.  

> I really don't think we need any instruction on pronounciation of
> words from a people who think "Reading" is
> pronounced "redding", "Worchester" is pronounced "wooster",
> and "Leicester" is pronounced "lester".

I'd have to look up the "why" in each of those cases, but I'd guess it's because they're all from different root languages, at least in part.

"Reading" can be explained to some extent by looking at the shorter "read".
"I have read a book" - pron. "redd".
"I read a book" (present tense) - pron. "reed". OK, so maybe "explained" isn't quite the word I want here...

I know the "cester" part of the other two place names is from "castra" or something like that, indicating a large Roman fort, but I'm not up on the details. And yes, in some cases it does have the "H" that got slipped into Worcester above. "Chester", frex.

And yes, this is useful - if I go to a place whose name ends in "cester", I know roughly what the layout will be, unless some careless idiot's gone and rebuilt it.            

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