No. I’ve always hated that example. For one thing, initial gh- is never pronounced /f/ in English. Final -ti is never pronounced /sh/. So that is not a possible interpretation of that set of letters in English, even if those sets of letters do have those individual sounds in other circumstances. But the point is, in English, there is ambiguity built in to our orthographic conventions. In Spanish, there is not. There is ambiguity in Spanish phonetics across dialects, but that is different from orthography.
I really don’t understand your objection to all this. What would it take for Spanish to be orthographically consistent for you?
I did, but I asked for an authority. You’re not one, or at any rate you’ve never comported yourself as one. In fact, you didn’t post a relevant cite until responding to me! And of course, it was only a Wikipedia cite! :rolleyes:
Thanks, but like I said, your posting pretty much means shit if you ascertain a fact without backing it up. Your reading comprehension is also in doubt, because you intimate that I’m making a statement of fact, wheras I was proposing a conjecture and asking for something solid.
For a more authoritative cite on how Latin x (ks) became Old Spanish x (sh), how about From Latin to Spanish, pp. 264 ff. The shift to /h/ is also covered in this book, but that page is not visible online.
Geez you guys, I said it approximates it better than PAR IS as per the example given in my previous post, not that it’s a perfect approximation. And besides, it wasn’t me who came up with ‘Pair us’ in the first place, but DSYounqEsq. And this thread isn’t even about Paris, or French, or English.
Well, honestly, my comprehension of Spanish Orthography is limited to the fact that my Grandmother taught me Castilian Spanish (with the pronounced “lisp”) and that got me beat up/teased in school by my Mexican schoolmates.
I can see that what you claim is CW, but I have provided a cite which casts doubt upon its complete accuracy. You need to come up with a competing cite, rather than a simple claim my cite is wrong and your personal opinion is right. Generaly, around here in GQ, “my post is my cite” carries little weight.
