Return of the minimal pairs (when is a morpheme not a morpheme?)

[Steve Gustafson]

petegray wrote:

>>> Greeks ...transcription of Latin: AKOAI
>>> ...for Latin AQUAE.

>> Comes from not having a [w] sound.

> Greek found the same solution as French.  In both languages the vowel
> written <u> is fronted, so the back /u/ is written ou.  It is this back /u/
> which is used to represent the /w/ sound, as in Oualerios (Valerius) or
> "oui" or Touareg /twareg/.

Also, the Greek letter upsilon had the sound of /y/ rather than /u/ in
Attic and Koine Greek.  Greek /u:/ was written 'ou,' and I don't think
that Greek had a short /u/.  So AKUAI would not have suggested the
correct pronunciation, and AKOUAI would have suggested a three syllable
word.

--
Steven A. Gustafson, attorney at law
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