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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: Breves (Re: Diacritic symbol names)
Message-ID: <Cy9v56.18B@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <Cy6Gs2.Lz5@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <38glpg$pq@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 08:48:42 GMT
Lines: 22

In article <38glpg$pq@agate.berkeley.edu> coby@euler.Berkeley.EDU (Jacob (Coby) Lubliner) writes:
>In article <Cy6Gs2.Lz5@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>, Ivan A Derzhanski <iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
>>[...] does Esperanto count?
>>It uses _u_-breve for /w/.  Why Zamenhof didn't use _w_ is beyond me.
>
>Probably because in Polish (in all likelihood Zamenhof's primary
>language) _w_ represents /v/.

I thought of that, but didn't want to suggest it.  Wasn't Esperanto
meant to be a language for international communication?  Can it be
that the man who had the courage to invite the zillions of speakers
of English, Spanish, Portuguese, French etc. to learn to pronounce
_c_, _j_ and quite a few other letters in ways unfamiliar to them
didn't have the fortitude to tell the German and Polish speakers
(of whom there are considerably fewer) that /v/ would be written
as _v_ and _w_ would be /w/?  Oh well.

-- 
`That's yer oan problem, Judas', they telt him.  `It's nae concern tae us.'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk/chaos.cs.brandeis.edu)  (The G-- G--)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
