Klarinet Archive - Posting 001073.txt from 2000/02

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Language (was ligatures)
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 16:37:55 -0500

At 12:59 PM 2/27/2000 -0500, Fred Sterns wrote:
>Swahili has some complicated grammar, including rough ["ruff" ?] stuff like
>noun prefixes...but about the easiest pronunuciation possible.
>
>For starters, every letter is pronounced...whether vowel or consonant.
>Moreover, if a letter is written twice, it's pronounced twice...no
>dipthongs.
>
>Next, the stress is on the next-to-the-last syllable...with only a few dozen
>exceptions out of the entire, massive, Swahili vocabularly. [The language
>"features" words of Bantu, Arabic, English, and Portuguese origins.]
>
>And...pronunciation is consistent across the entire Swahili speaking
>world...so if you're from Zanzibar and go to Eastern Uganda you'll still be
>understood.
>
>Apologies to anyone who objects to my wasting Klarinet bandwidth on an
>irrelvent subject.
>
And somehow, in spite of these many advantages, English has become the
dominant world language of business, engineering and science (I think), and
even poetry. Maybe this is because of the huge vocabulary and varied
shades of meaning available for precise expression of ideas. More
consistent spelling WOULD be a nice touch, though. We all make occasional
typos, and these should be accepted as equivalent to hitting the occasional
klunker note - not a good thing, but nothing to cause the hurling of rotten
vegetables unless it is frequent and clearly the result of carelessness and
lack of disciplined study.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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