Marco Cimarosti scripsit:

> *If* the reader knows Catalan... But you cannot always assume this,
> specially in bilingual dictionaries.

Users of bilingual dictionaries who aren't prepared to read anything
at all about the target language will produce word salad anyway:
orthographical problems will be the least of their worries.

> > My Italian textbook, IIRC, uses a dot below to indicate the placement
> > of stress in words written without an orthographic accent.
>
> So, it doesn't indicate the open or close pronunciation of "o"'s and "e"'s,
> treating Italian as it only had 5 vowels.

On reflection, this can't be right. I can't check the book now, but
I now think that the dot-below represented the close (or just possibly
the open) pronunciation of e and o, and that stress was not marked at all.

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John Cowan http://www.reutershealth.com jcowan@...