A Plethora of Pronunciations

[Perry Lassiter]

Unfortunately, I have also studied Spanish and German, along with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and dabbled in other Romance languages. Having said all that, I'm surprised you find Spanish grammar difficult. To me it is the easiest (and most beautiful of all the languages in its Castilian and Cuban versions) with far more regular declensions that German or French. Besides, the spelling and pronunciation is a snap! As I've commented elsewhere on this site, French drives me nuts because of its silent "knights," tho not so much in reading. If you want a weird one, try Biblical Hebrew. All sorts of letters come and go like ghosts, more or less at random.

[Philip Hudson]

Perry,
You seem to be quite educated in languages. Please look under the discussion for the Goodword "copse" and help me with Matagorda.

I am not complaining about Spanish spelling and pronunciation. They follow pretty good phonetic rules, much better than our English that is almost non-phonetic. I think Spanish has too many verb forms. My Tex-Mex friends say they ignore most of them. German has more articles, as do most languages with multiple linguistic genders. We could do without them too.

As for Hebrew, I know some fine Hebrew scholars since I have friends in the clergy. I cannot even read the Hebrew words I know if they are written with Hebrew letters. I trust the Lord has guided the Bible translators aright from Hebrew to English. There is an obvious difference between the results of Hebrew to English as in the Old Testament and Hebrew to Greek to English as in OT quotations in the NT. But the meaning is pretty well maintained. Shalom y’all.

[Audiendus]

Interesting to learn that the first usage [of "bathing"] in the UK is pronounced [bæθɪŋ] or is it [baθɪŋ]?

The first is used in the north of England, the second in the south (the "standard" pronunciation). The northern "a" is pronounced as in the US "bath", but shorter.

[Philip Hudson]

How can one pronounce the "a" in bath any shorter than we do it in the USA?

[Perry Lassiter]

Well, some of my more Southern sounding friends call it "bayeth."

[Philip Hudson]

Perry praises the beauty of Spanish. Rightly, he doesn’t include Tex-Mex.
Thomas Carlyle, having learned that butterfly in Spanish is mariposa, declared Spanish the world’s most beautiful language and began learning it immediately. Papillon, the French word for butterfly, is just as beautiful. Many Spanish speakers have warned me that I had better learn Spanish now because I will have to speak it in Heaven. Cielo, a beautiful word in itself, is one word for Heaven in Spanish. Many Spanish speakers that I know say the word and make upward spirals with their hands as they say it.

As for me, I find beauty in every language, but I find major satisfaction in English, the greatest artifact that God has allowed mankind to create. English is not necessarily beautiful but, to my ears, its beauty beats German and a lot of other languages.