Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Hint: All spanish is pronounced just like it's spelled.

  Not letter-by-letter, though. Some combinations of letters are
pronounced differently than those letters alone would be. For example,
the 'u' in "gu" is pronounced differently than in 'gui' (where it, in
fact, is not pronounced at all). Moreover, the 'g' in "gu" is pronounced
differently from the 'g' in "gi".

  The letter 'l' is pronounced differently when it's doubled: "ll"
(although official Spanish grammar considers 'l' and 'll' two distinct
letters of the alphabet, to be precise).

  The letter 'c' is pronounced differently depending on the following
vocal. If the following letter is 'h', it forms its own distinct letter
of the alphabet, pronounced differently from either 'c' or 'h'.

  There's a difference in pronounciation of the letter 'd' when it's
followed by a vocal compared to when it's followed by 'r' and a vocal.

  The pronounciation of the letter 'x' varies according to which
(Spanish-speaking) country you are in. Maybe even inside the same country.

  IIRC, there are no words in Spanish which start with an 's' and with
the second letter being a consonant. If a Spanish-speaking person tries
to pronounce a foreign word like that, he will usually instinctively
pronounce an 'e' at the beginning of the word (ie. before the 's'), for
some reason (I never understood why).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Let's add: c, s, and z have a different pronunciation in Spain, but in 
many Latin-american countries, they're pronounced the same way.

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Warp wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> Hint: All spanish is pronounced just like it's spelled.
> 
>   Not letter-by-letter, though. Some combinations of letters are
> pronounced differently than those letters alone would be. For example,
> the 'u' in "gu" is pronounced differently than in 'gui' (where it, in
> fact, is not pronounced at all). Moreover, the 'g' in "gu" is pronounced
> differently from the 'g' in "gi".

I didn't know that.

>   The letter 'l' is pronounced differently when it's doubled: "ll"
> (although official Spanish grammar considers 'l' and 'll' two distinct
> letters of the alphabet, to be precise).

Yeah. This and the "c" / "ch" are considered single letters. Like, in 
the dictionary, "lk" and "Lm" don't surround "ll". I think "r" and "rr" 
do the same thing, too. That's sort of what I was implying by "some of 
the letters are pronounced in unexpected ways."  I think the accents (as 
in stress on sylables) are very consistent too.

>   The pronounciation of the letter 'x' varies according to which
> (Spanish-speaking) country you are in. Maybe even inside the same country.

I'm sure stuff has drifted.  It's a heck of a lot more consistent than 
English, tho!

>   IIRC, there are no words in Spanish which start with an 's' and with
> the second letter being a consonant. If a Spanish-speaking person tries
> to pronounce a foreign word like that, he will usually instinctively
> pronounce an 'e' at the beginning of the word (ie. before the 's'), for
> some reason (I never understood why).

Cool. A lot of the oriental languages (mandarin, japanese) have mainly 
sylables with one consonant. (I.e., every consonant is close to a 
vowel.) So you don't get words like "consonants", which are easy for me 
to pronounce and hard for most people I know who grew up speaking chinese.

A funny story. "Hoya" is the spanish word for "cove" (as in, a bay of 
water good for parking boats). When the british/americans/English 
speakers took over the town next to where I live, they asked the spanish 
living there what it was called.  "La Hoya."  The brits then said 
"Hmmm... But it's spanish. Better mark it on the maps as "La Jolla".

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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> Yeah. This and the "c" / "ch" are considered single letters. Like, in 
> the dictionary, "lk" and "Lm" don't surround "ll". I think "r" and "rr" 
> do the same thing, too. That's sort of what I was implying by "some of 
> the letters are pronounced in unexpected ways."  I think the accents (as 
> in stress on sylables) are very consistent too.

Dictionaries don't show those as separate letters (anymore).

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Stephen wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:31:12 -0400, Sabrina Kilian <"ykgp at
> vtSPAM.edu"> wrote:
> 
>> John VanSickle wrote:
>>> Oedipus complex:  n.  A romantic attraction towards ones own parent of 
>>> the opposite sex.
>>>
>> Usually refers only to a male's attraction to his mother. A female's 
>> attraction to her father is an Electra complex.
> 
> Since we are showing off with our Greek. I point Andrew to the "Medea
> complex" if he wants to worry :)

I wasn't referring to Greek, but to Jungian psychology.

Freud used Oedipus to refer to both sexes of a child, but Freud. . . 
well, Freud was stoned.

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

>> Yeah. This and the "c" / "ch" are considered single letters. Like, in 
>> the dictionary, "lk" and "Lm" don't surround "ll". I think "r" and 
>> "rr" do the same thing, too. That's sort of what I was implying by 
>> "some of the letters are pronounced in unexpected ways."  I think the 
>> accents (as in stress on sylables) are very consistent too.
> 
> Dictionaries don't show those as separate letters (anymore).

Heh. I suspect since computerization kicked in, it's harder to make that 
work right.  Anyway, I'm just going on what I remember of high-school 
Spanish when it comes to such rules.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:480e5283$1@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
>
> > How much fiction (excluding web comics) do you read?
>
> In the last 3 years, I have read approximately 0 pages of fiction [not
> counting web comics, which is a very new trend for me].
>
> What can I say? 90% of my life is spent writing computer programs. I
> don't *do* much else... [Unless you count sleeping anyway.]

Geesh...

Go visit your local library sometime. Besides being a great way to spend
some time, reading books increase your vocabulary and your general
knowledge.
You might even make a couple acquaintances at the library

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"Stephen" <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote in message
news:oh3s04lmhpfifg72n29nden5k1ovdnoqin@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:25:11 +0200, "Gail Shaw"
> <initialsurname@sentech sa dot com> wrote:
>
> >
> >p.s. if you want to improve your vocabulary -
> >http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/list/
> >
>
> or
> http://www.readersdigest.co.uk/wordpower/
> :)

Oooh... I like.
45.697 out of 50 first round. They got a bit harder from there.

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On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:16:21 -0700, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom>
wrote:

>
>I've only ever heard it in reference to Starbucks. :-)

I've heard it in Italy


>And, incidentally, yes, Oedipus is supremely f'ed up. 

His head only got messed up when he found out that Jocasta was his
mother.

>That's pretty much 
>why it's still a part of the language thousands of years after it was 
>written, in a different language yet.

I think that its longevity is more due to it being used as an example
of "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad"
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:29:43 -0400, Sabrina Kilian <"ykgp at
vtSPAM.edu"> wrote:

>
>I wasn't referring to Greek, but to Jungian psychology.
>

I know, I was just being trivial :)

>Freud used Oedipus to refer to both sexes of a child, but Freud. . . 
>well, Freud was stoned.

And you need to tell that to a Stephen?  :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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