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From: John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>
Subject: Re: "gh"
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 22:45:28 GMT
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Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:
 
> Alwyn Thomas <alwyn@pia.bt.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> >mcv@pi.net (Miguel Carrasquer Vidal) writes:
> >> "Ghost" is just an example of the "near-optimality" of English spelling,
> >> I think the term was.
> 
> >"Ghost" is spelled thus by analogy with the Middle Dutch *gheest*
> 
> That's interesting.  Why?  It's not a borrowing from Dutch, and in
> Middle Dutch, all g's were spelt like that before e or i, I think, but
> one doesn't spell "to ghive".  Why was this word singled out for "Dutch
> treatment"?

Because the English printing trade was founded by Dutch immigrants.
Some of their usages stuck.

-- 
John Cowan						cowan@ccil.org
			e'osai ko sarji la lojban
