suzmccarth wrote:

>
> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter Constable" <petercon@...> wrote:
> > > From: suzmccarth [mailto:suzmccarth@...]
>
> > > Same in Cree and Tamil, it depends on stress. The vowel can
> > > disappear without bothering to use a virama/pulli/ or Cree final
> > > (which are not only differentiated by size but can be a whole
> > > different set of smaller symbols. The same symbols only smaller
> > > seems to be a modern phenomena.)
> >
> > My hypothesis regarding this has been that spelling has (in this
> > respect) remained stable while pronunciation has not. So, the vowel gets
> > dropped, but the spelling isn't changed to reflect it.
>
> Yes, of course, but is it possible that the stress patterns, among
> other things, have caused pronunciation to change? Wouldn't some
> unstressed vowels disappear over time but remain in the spelling?
> What about "achever" in French?

Of course, but

Howcome all of a sudden you drag in stress?

and why "but"?
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...