Bilingual in Europe versus USA

On Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:24:30 -0500, erilar
wrote:

In article ,
Dave Frightens Me wrote:

On Sat, 26 Aug 2006 10:19:10 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Wolfgang Schwanke writes:

Only if you find unetymological spellings an improvement.

I prefer consistent and phonetic spelling, given a choice.

Even American English is no closer than British in that respect.

It's largely the fault of Willie the ******* back in 1066 8-)

Some languages are much closer to phonetic than English. I hear Spanish
is. I know German is.

Spanish is almost completely 100% phonetic; there are very few cases where
a sound can be represented by more than one letter ('ch,' 'll', and 'rr'
can be considered single letters for this purpose). In my somewhat
limited experience, an exception would be the 'z' and soft 'c', which are
pronounced as 's' in Mexican and as 'th' (as in thin) in Castilian. When
I was in Spain earlier this year, I was asked on several occasions if I
was from Mexico. Most of my Spanish teachers were from Mexico, which I
suppose explains why I picked up Mexican pronunciation.

===
Steve
Shoreline, Washington USA

28 Aug 2006, 1746 PDT

Dave Frightens Me writes:

That's about right. They usually just give it a throatal halt (if you
know what I mean).

A glottal stop?

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Stephen Dailey writes:

Spanish is almost completely 100% phonetic; there are very few cases where
a sound can be represented by more than one letter ('ch,' 'll', and 'rr'
can be considered single letters for this purpose).

I get it: If there are any inconsistencies, just use the "consider
these a single letter" argument. With that technique, every language
is 100% phonetic.

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Hatunen writes:

So your definition of "standard" is that you can get a job with
it?

That's one important indicator. Of course, if you're content to live
on welfare or deal drugs on street corners, you don't need standard
English.

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Dave Frightens Me writes:

You are of course aware that that's derogatory.

I'm aware that it's true, too.

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On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:13:45 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Dave Frightens Me writes:

You are of course aware that that's derogatory.

I'm aware that it's true, too.

Insistance doesn't demonstrate anything.
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:13:24 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Hatunen writes:

So your definition of "standard" is that you can get a job with
it?

That's one important indicator. Of course, if you're content to live
on welfare or deal drugs on street corners, you don't need standard
English.

No wonder people here think you're racist.
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:11:39 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Dave Frightens Me writes:

That's about right. They usually just give it a throatal halt (if you
know what I mean).

A glottal stop?

A glottal of glear?
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:12:49 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Stephen Dailey writes:

Spanish is almost completely 100% phonetic; there are very few cases where
a sound can be represented by more than one letter ('ch,' 'll', and 'rr'
can be considered single letters for this purpose).

I get it: If there are any inconsistencies, just use the "consider
these a single letter" argument. With that technique, every language
is 100% phonetic.

How does that work for the English 'gh' ?
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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B Vaughan wrote:

On Sat, 26 Aug 2006 18:40:56 +0200, Dave Frightens Me
wrote:


The closeness is indiscernible. In some parts American pronounciation
misses out other consonants anyway, like the 't' in boat.


That "t" is there, it's just softer than in the British pronunciation.
Americans but their tongue in "t" position, which "stops" the vowel.
They just omit the little puff of air that the Brits add at the end.

Have you listened to Ameircan teen-agers, lately? They
seldom seem to give even an audible "nod" to final consonants.