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From: gmb@natcorp.ox.ac.uk (Glynis Baguley)
Subject: Re: food for thought
Message-ID: <1995Apr4.153626.9076@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk>
Originator: gmb@onions.natcorp
Organization: British National Corpus, Oxford University, GB
References: <3lcjf2$8r1@sylvia.smith.edu> <aldersonD6BKGw.Dzv@netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 1995 15:36:26 GMT
Lines: 22

In article <aldersonD6BKGw.Dzv@netcom.com> alderson@netcom.com writes:
> In article <3lcjf2$8r1@sylvia.smith.edu> 101b-bq@sophia.smith.edu (Anne Nester)
> writes:
> 
> >Is the English (American, I think) colloquialism "vittles" a contraction of
> >the semi-archaic "victuals"?  My dictionary doesn't have "vittles".
> 
> Not a contraction, but a "sound spelling"--the orthographic <c> in "victual" is
> silent.

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

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?


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{      Glynis.Baguley@oucs.ox.ac.uk     }
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