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Subject:Re: Origin of phonetic alphabet From:John Renish <John -dot- Renish -at- CONNER -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 2 Jun 1995 11:41:09 PDT
Interesting observation, but completely irrelevant. Look at the word. In
French (it's origin), it's Kay bek'. In Canadian English, it's Kay bek' or
Ke bek'. In Spanish, it's Kay bek'. In Italian, it's Kay bek'. In German,
its normal pronunciation (based on spelling) is Kvay bek', and in American
English, it's usually Kwe bek'.
It appears that speakers of Romance languages find it perfectly phonetic and
that it is an example of how speakers of Germanic languages tend to
mispronounce unfamiliar Romance language words. Can you suggest a Q-word
that would satisfy all speakers of European languages, let alone
non-European languages? For example, Arabic has a similar letter, qaf, that
is pronounced sort of like a K or G, but in the back of the throat.
John -dot- Renish -at- conner -dot- com
My statements are my own and do not represent Conner Peripherals, Inc.
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