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From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: Accents in Spanish and Catalan (was:
 Chinese romanization systems)
Message-ID: <CyJL93.ABB@inter.NL.net>
Organization: NLnet
References: <CyIDMA.Gow@inter.NL.net> <3928di$re@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 14:51:02 GMT
Lines: 70

In article <3928di$re@agate.berkeley.edu>,
Coby (Jacob) Lubliner <coby@euler.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:
>In article <CyIDMA.Gow@inter.NL.net>,
>Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@inter.NL.net> wrote:
>>d) Special cases to distinguish homophones.
> [skip]
>>
>>porque "because"	porque' "why?"
>	I know you can say "el porque'" ("the reason") and
>	"no se' porque' lo hice", but isn't "why" usually
>	written "por que'"?

Yes, you're right.  I guess it's also "no se' por que'
lo hice".  The Dictionary of the Real Academia gives
"porque' (< por que'): 1) reason ;2) gain, wages

>>cuyo "whose"		cu'yo "whose?"  
>	Are you sure there exists an interrogative "cu'yo"?
>	I've never seen or heard it.  (But I'm not a native
>	speaker and you are.)

I've never used it, but again quoting from DLE (RA):
"cuyo"  1.  ...  2. pron. interrog. con variacio'n
tambie'n de ge'nero y nu'mero, pero con acento proso'dico 
y ortogra'fico. ?CU'YO es este libro?

One would usually say: "?De quie'n es este libro?"

>>
>>A moderate list compared to Catalan:
>>
>>dona "gives"		do'na "woman, wife"
>	Isn't this backwards?  Or is it different
>	in Western Catalan?

No, we don't have a W. Catalan spelling :-)
I mixed up the two columns.

>>mes "my (fem. pl.)" 	me's "more"
>	Also _mes_ "month" (pronounced /me's/ in Barcelona and
>	/me`s/ in Girona.  How about Lleida?)

me's.  As a general rule, Lleidata` has closed e, except
before -rr- (fErro), -rC (obErt), -l (mEl) and most cases
of -eu (dEu).  The etymoloical distinction has been lost,
and [e] and [E] are almost (but not quite) allophones.

>>seu "his/her own; diocese; sits"	se`u "fat"
>>si "if"			si' "yes"
>	Also _si_ "bosom, cavity" and "si" (note)
>>sol "sun"		so`l "floor"
>	Also _sol_ "alone"
>>
>The Catalan list includes both exact homophones and
>semi-homophones (vowel open in one, closed in the other).
>It seems as if the open vowel is usually (not always) the default.
|>The accent doesn't always make the distinction; for example,
>seu "his/her own" is /se'u/ but seu "diocese; sits" is /se`u/.

I guess in this case it's because "seu" [his/her own] is
unstressed

>All in all, a pretty mess.

You're right.

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
