Subj : Strange a bit To : Ardith Hinton From : Alexander Koryagin Date : Mon Oct 28 2024 12:56:20 Hi, Ardith Hinton! I read your message from 26.10.2024 19:24 AK>> However in astrology AH> Or numerology, methinks.... :-) AK>> every letter is important and they say can change the person's AK>> destiny. ;) AH> Uh-huh. In English, you can spell a family name "Smythe" & require AH> others to pronounce it "Smith". Years ago I knew somebody who did AH> that. And names like "Brown" & "Clark" may be spelled with or AH> without a final "e". The spelling of one's name may or may not AH> influence the audience's reaction.:-Q Probably some people want to deceive the Devil while he peruse his list of those who must be taken to hell. ;-) Which Smith are you looking for? There is no such a person! :) AH>> Pronunciations in English often vary from one time & place to AH>> another... and I don't know where this name originated. But IMHO AH>> it's most likely the pronunciation changed & we never got around AH>> to changing the spelling. I'm told that's what happened with AH>> e.g. "gnash" and "knife".... :-) I suspect that "gn" and "kn" are forgotten English diphthongs, like "th". They probably sounded even more incomprehensive and tongue mutilating for common people that they refused from them. Of they simply couldn't pronounce it. ;-) AK>> It would be interesting for me to learn who threw "k" first and AK>> why others started follow him. ;-) AH> I don't know who did it or when... the OED might tell us more about AH> that... but for native speakers of English, the initial consonants AH> are rather difficult to pronounce without adding a vowel when one AH> follows immediately on the other. I'm reminded here of the Danish AH> King "Canute" (as I was taught to spell his name). During the 11th AH> century he was king of England. But he was king of Denmark & Norway AH> too... and many historians nowadays spell it "Cnut". While that may AH> be more authentic from their POV I don't speak Danish.... :-) It seems to me that the French origin of it is very likely, taking into account the great impact it exert on English. It possible that adding a silent "e" was even a mean to underline the French ancestry. AH>> I get the impression the upper classes in Russia preferred French AH>> (which may have worked for them when they didn't want the servants AH>> to get the drift) until they became disenchanted with Napoleon, AH>> then carefully reconstructed what's now your native language. The AH>> net result from my POV is that it's a lot younger than my native AH>> language & doesn't include complications like "silent letters".... AK>> Yes, the French got a great impact on the Russian language, but AK>> Russians did not accept those crazy silent letters. So Bordeaux in AK>> Russia is just Bordo, and nobody suffers from it. AH> To my ears, however, the second "o" is elongated. If your language AH> makes no such distinction I understand. I have to keep reminding AH> myself that e.g. the word "venue" is pronounced differently in AH> English & French.... :-)) Yeah, the French don't like "e" at the end of words. ;-) As said one Russian literature personage "there there is some mystery or a perverted tastes". ;-) Bye, Ardith! Alexander Koryagin english_tutor 2024 --- * Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/6.0) .