RE: Re: A before O

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 07:16:26 +0100

 >>And personally I have no idea

> > where the silent "a" goes (other than you having just
> > told me, I know...), or why it's in there at all.
>
> It's the Hellenized form of the Hebrew "Par'oh", with the glottal
> (represented there by an apostrophe) being the Hebrew letter 'ayin',
> which is often turned into an A when Hebrew is
> transliterated.

And then still left silent? After all, we still pronounce it "Fair"-"oh", no glottal stop, no nuffin. And I know me glo'al stops, I do, coming from Lu'on!

> The Hebrew name for the city
> 'Amora -- you know, the next town over from Sodom -- also
> begins with an
> ayin, but our conventional transliteration represents *that* glottal
> with a 'g', 'Gomorrah'. I suppose the god-king of the Nile
> valley could
> have ended up called 'Phargoh'. Yah sure, you betcha...)

Sounds a bit like Welsh. A vowel at the start of a word may, or may not, have a "G" stuck on the front, depending on where it comes in the sentence (or other list of words). So my husband's second name is "Wyn", but his cousin's first name is "Gwyn" - same name.

How to generate yet more Gloranthan names, in one easy lesson...


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