[B-Greek] Warning Stone Acts 21:28
Barry
nebarry at verizon.net
Fri Mar 21 22:23:25 EDT 2008
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Barton" <phos at windstream.net>
To: <B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 9:58 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Warning Stone Acts 21:28
> I'm wondering what would motivate people to make a D -> Q substitution as
> these two examples illustrate. Is MHQEN easier to say than MHDEN?<<
You heard about the new student who was learning English as a second
language. He learned the word "enough" in class. The next day he proudly
informed his teacher that he had studied ahead and learned "thruff"
(through) and "thuff" (though).
So which is easier to say, "enough" or "through?" What "motivates"
different pronunciation but the retention of an identical spelling? Why did
English go through "the great vowel shift?" Linguistic change occurs, for
which reason nobody really knows, though linguistics textbooks have all
sorts of theories, and "ease of pronunciation" is almost certainly not the
reason (though loan words are usually pronounced according to the
phonological demands of the receptor language, but not always consistently).
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Professor, WRTS
http://www.wittenbergreformed.org
Mentor, TNARS http://www.tnars.net/
Classics Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
and me:
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry
http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list