Peter T. Daniels <grammatim at worldnet dot att dot net> wrote:

> Syllables are _extremely_ important to writing systems.

Apparently not in the English writing system :-) , for then if Hamtramck
really is a three-syllable word, there should be a written vowel before
the "c".

> If there's no third syllable in the Michigan town, why isn't it
> /h&mtr&Nk/?

Would the /k/ necessarily change the /m/ to /N/? (I forgot the word for
this type of change.)

Not that I pronounce "Hamtramck" all that often, living in California
and all, but when I do it's about two and a half syllables. It
certainly doesn't sound quite like "Hamtrammick" or "Hamtrammock."

> People I know don't have trouble with Dvor^ák.

Most people you know are probably fairly intelligent, educated, and
thoughtful. They probably don't say "Eye-talian" and "Eye-rack" and
"Sodom" Hussein, either.

-Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California
http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/