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TID: hpt/lnx 1.9 2024-03-02

Hi, Ardith Hinton!
I read your message from 26.10.2024 19:24


 AK>> However in astrology
 AH> Or numerology, methinks.... :-)
 AK>> every letter is important and they say can change the person's
 AK>> destiny. ;)

 AH> Uh-huh. In English, you can spell a family name "Smythe" & require
 AH> others to pronounce it "Smith". Years ago I knew somebody who did
 AH> that. And names like "Brown" & "Clark" may be spelled with or
 AH> without a final "e". The spelling of one's name may or may not
 AH> influence the audience's reaction.:-Q

Probably some people want to deceive the Devil while he peruse his list of
those who must be taken to hell. ;-) Which Smith are you looking for? There is
no such a person! :)

 AH>> Pronunciations in English often vary from one time & place to
 AH>> another... and I don't know where this name originated. But IMHO
 AH>> it's most likely the pronunciation changed & we never got around
 AH>> to changing the spelling. I'm told that's what happened with
 AH>> e.g. "gnash" and "knife".... :-)

I suspect that "gn" and "kn" are forgotten English diphthongs, like "th". They
probably sounded even more incomprehensive and tongue mutilating for common
people that they refused from them. Of they simply couldn't pronounce it. ;-)

 AK>> It would be interesting for me to learn who threw "k" first and
 AK>> why others started follow him. ;-)

 AH> I don't know who did it or when... the OED might tell us more about
 AH> that... but for native speakers of English, the initial consonants
 AH> are rather difficult to pronounce without adding a vowel when one
 AH> follows immediately on the other. I'm reminded here of the Danish
 AH> King "Canute" (as I was taught to spell his name). During the 11th
 AH> century he was king of England. But he was king of Denmark & Norway
 AH> too... and many historians nowadays spell it "Cnut". While that may
 AH> be more authentic from their POV I don't speak Danish.... :-)

It seems to me that the French origin of it is very likely, taking into
account the great impact it exert on English. It possible that adding a silent
"e" was even a mean to underline the French ancestry.

 AH>> I get the impression the upper classes in Russia preferred French
 AH>> (which may have worked for them when they didn't want the servants
 AH>> to get the drift) until they became disenchanted with Napoleon,
 AH>> then carefully reconstructed what's now your native language. The
 AH>> net result from my POV is that it's a lot younger than my native
 AH>> language & doesn't include complications like "silent letters"....
 AK>> Yes, the French got a great impact on the Russian language, but
 AK>> Russians did not accept those crazy silent letters. So Bordeaux in
 AK>> Russia is just Bordo, and nobody suffers from it.

 AH> To my ears, however, the second "o" is elongated. If your language
 AH> makes no such distinction I understand. I have to keep reminding
 AH> myself that e.g. the word "venue" is pronounced differently in
 AH> English & French.... :-))

Yeah, the French don't like "e" at the end of words. ;-) As said one Russian
literature personage "there there is some mystery or a perverted tastes". ;-)

Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2024

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