Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 20:01:23 -0500

From: Benjamin Barrett Gogaku[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GNN.COM

Subject: Re: Respelling



Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 14:03:37 -0700

From: Rudy Troike RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU

Sender: American Dialect Society ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU



The spelling Neandertal has been around a long time in arch(a)eological

writings. The th spelling in German represents a /t/ pronunciation, which

Americans are woefully ignorant of, and thus pronounce with /Theta/ as in

English. Dropping the h helps get rid of this inaccurate

spelling-pronuncia-

tion. Thanks for bringing up this example -- it will be useful in teaching.

[snip]



I was under the impression that it is lost to history as to whether the

Greeks of yore pronounced--or aspirated--the "h" in "theta" and "rho."



yoroshiku

Benjamin Barrett