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From: alderson@netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: food for thought
In-Reply-To: gmb@natcorp.ox.ac.uk's message of Tue, 4 Apr 1995 15:36:26 GMT
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	<1995Apr4.153626.9076@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk>
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In article <1995Apr4.153626.9076@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk> gmb@natcorp.ox.ac.uk
(Glynis Baguley) writes:

>In article <aldersonD6BKGw.Dzv@netcom.com> alderson@netcom.com writes:

>>Not a contraction, but a "sound spelling"--the orthographic <c> in "victual"
>>is silent.

>Like the <u>, and arguably the <a>.

These letters appear in an unaccented syllable, and can plausibly be held to
represent a shwa (ASCII IPA [@]), if one wishes to analyze English syllabic
resonants as sequences of shwa+resonant, so they aren't *necessarily* silent.

>Incidentally, I've followed your example in enclosing these letters in angle
>brackets, but without actually knowing why. Is it to make it clear that you're
>referring to letters and not sounds?

Yes.  It is the common method among phonologists (at least of my acquaintance)
of indicating orthography as opposed to phonology // or phonetics [].
-- 
Rich Alderson		[Tolkien quote temporarily removed in favour of
alderson@netcom.com	 proselytizing comment below --rma]

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