February 24th, 2009
Have you noticed that every language seems to deamonize a particular letter of the alphabet? Users of the language either refuse to pronounce it, or they pronounce it as a different sound, or they banish it altogether.
Polish
Polish has excommunicated the V. This is really strange, because all its linguistic neighbors use the V all the time. All words get rewritten with Ws instead.
Norwegian
Norwegian vowels are heavy, industrial strength. Somehow this has made the O into a Polish U or an English OO. To compensate for this lacking, the Å was invented as a makeshift O.
English
English has caught onto the fact that V and W are really the same sound, and have co-opted the W for a completely different sound. Polish has a ready made letter for this sound: the Ł.
English also disfavors the J, and uses the Y as a J when need be.
Needless to say, the R was mutated into a sound that defies definition. This is lost on many English natives who plainly assume that the crazy English R is the standard for all languages.
French
French refuses to pronounce the H, yet it keeps using it in written form.
French also uses the J as a Polish Ż.
The R, of course, is the most eccentric of them. It was made into a gargling sound that stings the throat.
Dutch
Dutch will pronounce the G only as an H. And the H.. er.. also as an H. It may be that the G and the H are slightly different in speech, but if so it still eludes me how.
Spanish
Spanish doesn't like the J. In its place it improvised the LL (but also the Y is used for this). The J is used as an H, in place of the real H, which refuses to be pronounced. Sounds pretty obsessive, doesn't it?
And the V becomes a B, depending on who you ask.
Italian
Like all its latin friends, Italian pretends the H doesn't exist, but still keeps writing it.
Good read Martin, interesting stuff.
Don't even get me started on Basque...
Basque, huh? What have you been doing with your nights
I'm just glad you haven't bothered to learn Dutch cause you'd fill a book with a hateful rant on Dutch vowel combinations
Martin: Actually, my very limited knowledge of Basque comes from looking at footballers' names, like Bixente Lizarazu and Joseba Etxeberria.
btw you might find this interesting:
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/362-greek-to-me-mapping-mutual-incomprehension/
I wonder what say English speakers say once they learn Greek.
I wouldn't say the Dutch G is pronounced like H (at least from a Norwegian pronunciation point of view). I would rather say that a Dutch G is the sound you make when you are clearing your throat or hocking a loogie.
I'm no expert in Dutch though, but I'm able to speak a little bit when forced to.