MvdV>> That explains why singer is pronounced the way it is, it does MvdV>> not explain why Ginger is not pronounced in rhime with singer. MvdV>> Or why Ginger is not spelled Djindzjer.
DR> Because we don't spell that way. Only the languages that don't have DR> our soft "g" sound have to use "dj". And we don't have the soft "g" DR> sound that there is in, say, French.
You propably read it too. In Gödel.Escher.Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, a superior being that can grant wishes is called a "djin". It is not spelled "gin". OK, Hofstadteris an American, but still...
MvdV>> And BTW would someone who singes be a singer, buit pronounced MvdV>> as sindzjer?
DR> Yes.
So, a homograph.
MvdV>>>> Why does Reading (the place) rhime with Redding? (as in Otis)
DR>>> I had an uncle whose surname was Reading (pronounced Redding) DR>>> and an aunt whose maiden name was Redding (pronounced Redding).
MvdV>> These things baffle me. If it is pronounced Redding, why is it MvdV>> not spelled redding?
DR> It was at one time. But, as with a lot of words in English, the DR> English tried to "posh them up" at bit. And so we have "humour" DR> whereas the American have the original spelling of "humor". In the DR> case of my uncle, it was a matter of how his forebears thought they DR> ought to spell the name, and so some of them spelled it "Reading" and DR> some "Redding". I found this out while researching my family tree.
When it comes to names, this is understandable. Common Dutch names also appear in variants. Kok, Kock, Cock.
MvdV>>>> Why does Worchester rhime wit booster?
DR>>> Worcester. And it doesn't quite rhyme with booster. The "u" DR>>> sound is shorter, like u without an umlaut in German.
MvdV>> The 'u' as in "Kurt" or as in "Burt"?
DR> As in "Kurt".
I can't hear the difference, bit OK....
MvdV>> I know about Fenshaw. It was a gag in an episode of inspector MvdV>> Linley.
DR> And it is the middle name of the eponymous character in DR> P.G.Wodehouse's Ukridge - "Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge - the man DR> of many schemes."
Yes, I think we discussed this before. A decade ago or so.. ;-)
DR>>> And bow can be pronounced in two ways according to whether it's DR>>> how to tie a knot or whether it's an acknowledgement.
MvdV>> Things like that are very hard for non native speakers. MvdV>> Homographs are very rare in most other languages.
DR> You get a lot of homophones in French:
DR> Ver (a worm), verre (a glass), and vert (green) DR> Mer (the sea), mère (mother) and maire (a mayor) DR> Poids (weight), pois (a pea or peas) and poix (tar).
Those are homophones, not homographs.
Homographs are very rare in Dutch. There used to be some in Fidonet when accents were still banned.
voorkómen to prevent vóórkomen tp appear in court.
een the article "a", as in "a pear" één the number one, as in "one pear"
In Ducht Fidonet we used to circumvent the use of banned accents by writing e1n for the number one. Or capitals . voorkOmen vs vOOrkomen. Fortunately now that he ban on non ASCII has ben dropped, these work arounds are no longer needed. Reading is much more comfortable when accents are used.
As you can see in Dutch the accent is used more or less the same as the Umlaut in German. In Dutch the diaresis is not an Umlaut, it is used as a trema. To signal that a diphtong like 'oe' is to be pronounced as two different vowels. Noël.
