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From: aaron_j._dinkin@fourd.com (Aaron J. Dinkin)
Subject: Re: ae (was: Sociological autopsy of the Dunblane massacre)
Message-ID: <aaron_j._dinkin-2106961041270001@dmn1-27.usa1.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 10:41:27 -0500
Distribution: world
References: <31c8ba59.28879345@news.Leiden.NL.net> <9606202253105327@election.demon.co.uk> <N4N7QQAIYhyxEw+Z@vision25.demon.co.uk>
Lines: 41

In article <N4N7QQAIYhyxEw+Z@vision25.demon.co.uk>, Cheradenine Zakalwe
<zakalwe@vision25.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> In article <9606202253105327@election.demon.co.uk>, David Boothroyd
> <david@election.demon.co.uk> writes:
> >
> >In article <31c8ba59.28879345@news.Leiden.NL.net>, -=[ Dr. Stein ]=- writes:
> >>
> >> "Child abusers are paedophiles" (Why do people insist on using pae
> >> instead of pe?)
> >
> >Because it's correct. The word paedophile comes from the latin,

"The" Latin? "THE" Latin?

Actually, it's Greek paido- (pi alpha iota delta [omicron]) which was
transliterated into Latin as paedo-

> >and the prefix paedo- means of or relating to children. American simplified 
> >spelling has eliminated 'ae' (which should be joined together like this  -
> >your computer may not have this character).
> 
> Is this right? My understanding is that Latin "ae" was pronounced as in
> English "eye", and that the a-and-e-together-letter was invented by
> Anglo-Saxons who were using the Roman alphabet to write English, and
> invented extra letters because Old English had sounds not found in
> Latin. In particular the ae-letter represented a vowel like in English
> "cat". This sounded to them like a cross between the sounds of Latin "a"
> and Latin "e".

You're right. The ash was used by Anglo-Saxons to represent the sound /&/,
and later it came into use for transcribing "ae" (two letters in Latin)
from Latin words and "ai" from Greek words in English words derived from
them.
 
> (all pronunciation of English words are RP).

When you post to a.u.e., please use the IPA. It's in the FAQ.

Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

