Speaking of phonemes and graphemes in English, I'm reminded of the old
antiphonetic joke: "How do you pronounce 'ghoti'? Be advised, if you're a
sensitive linguist, you might find the following offensive.
It's pronounced "fish". You take the 'gh' from 'enough', there's your /f/,
take the 'o' from 'women', there's your /i/ and take the 'ti' from 'nation',
there's your /sh/ -- fish.
Mike Geary
Could "th" as in "the" and "kith" be considered a soft 't'? The Germans---and lots of others---don't use that sound, which is why the Germans have given up and now write "Neandertal" instead of "Neanderthal."
Nah, those are in a class by themselves -- bilabial fricatives. I once tried to teach a German-Speaker how to make that sound, it ended up being a sort of childlike, extended 'd' sound. I guess if you don't form and retain them in the babbling stage, the ability to make those sounds is lost.
p
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