>2)I don't belive that the "m" before "p" is a gramatical
>rule imposed by someone.
This is not a matter of "I believe/I don't believe",
it's a matter of... RTFM.
>The "mp" sounds simply romanian.
In reality, there is no MP or NP. Instead, there
is a nasalisation of the preceding vowel. But, since
this phenomenon is way much weaker than in Polish and
French and virtually insignifiant in Romanian, there
is no rule in writing, neither in normative diction,
nor do logopedic specialists deal with this, AFAIK.
So, feel free to pronounce cuMpara, and I can also
feel free to "c<nasalised>upara". (Unfortunately, I
am not able to give you bibliographic info pertaining
to nasal phenomena in Romanian.)
>You say about "np" used in some subdialects.
Where on earth do I state something like this?!
I was talking about (and now please pay attention)
A: pronunciation and writing by people with poor
grammar training as well as dyslexic people; and
B: the actual nasalisation, whereby there is no
*real* M or N before the P.
Then I pointed out that, according to a grammar
rule (especially for the written language), before
P you have to use M. Using N before P will always
be seen as a mistake. (This rule has been taught
in Romanian elementary school for more than a
century now.)
>I do not intend to contradict you, I simply did not
>heard it.
Of course you too were taught this rule in school.
The other thing, namely that Romanian also has
nasals, such as those cases which we render in
writing as NC, MP, NT, ND (adânc, împart, tont,
blând), of course you've never heard of in school:
it isn't mentioned in average grammar books. It's
barely mentioned in linguistics works. Because,
after all, these nasals practically don't matter in
Romanian.
>My grand mother was never to school but she spooked
>too with "mp" and not with "np".
The genuine and/or traditional pronunciation,
including that by your granma, is with that nasal
thing, which is neither M nor N. The emphatic
pronunciation of a separate, distinct, M followed
by the bilabial P or B is not a traditional
pronunciation, but an... "artificial" one, imposed
by written Romanian as well as by a... phonetical
reading tendency. But nobody cares, since, pronounced
either way, nothing changes semantically! If you
don't believe me, then next time when you pay a visit
to your old Heimat, do talk to the best specialist
in this field of Romanian phonology whoever that
might be (I don't know) and ask her/him to confirm
or reject my allegations.
>Alex
George