From: Miguel Carrasquer
Message: 39949
Date: 2005-09-12
>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "aquila_grande"Sardo maintains -t unchanged:
><aquila_grande@...> wrote:
>> I think this is the explanatrion: Usually the word quatre is
>> pronounce "katr&", ie. in practical language the -e- is not mute,
>> but pronounced as a schwa.
>>
>> (I know the rules dictate this e to be mute, but this is not what
>> happens in real speach)
>
>Well ... I'd rather say that "e instable" is mute when not handy for
>euphony, for instance when avoiding three or more consonants meeting:
>"quatr-& francs", "il n'exist-& pas", but "quatr- euros".
>(In quick colloquial pronunciation though: "quat- francs").
>
>> You find the same phenomenon in the combination a-t-il = has he,
>> where a -t is used in analogy with other similar combinations.
>>
>
>I've always considered this -t- the only survivor of 3rd sing -t in
>Romance languages. Perhaps I am wrong?