Dragaera

evolution in language: OT.now on topic

Mon Feb 14 13:10:34 PST 2005

--- rone <rone at ennui.org> wrote:

> Jerry Friedman writes:
>   "Hey-sus"!  There's no [z] sound in most dialects of Spanish except
>   before a voiced consonant (as in "machismo", at least in American
>   Spanish).
> 
> I'm sure you mean "Heh-SUS",

Well, yes.  One thing at a time.

> since the Spanish 'e' is pronounced 'eh',
> not 'ey', and i'd love to find out how this little nugget has become
> common usage in the Anglophone world.

Because we don't have [E] as in "Ed" at the end of a syllable, and
we don't have [e], which is really the sound here, except in the
diphthong [eI] as in "hey".

You could also have corrected my use of "H" for the Spanish "J".

Geraldo Friedman


		
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