--- 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?

Suzanne