>> >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!
Then there's the complication that written Hebrew has no vowels. The speaker decides the vowel sound based on their knowledge of the word, which varies by dialect. So the 'ayin' shouldn't really be turned into 'a'.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/ ------------------------------
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