"Drouth"

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

I thought you were thinking of things like the "t" in "often"
------Original Message------
From: Charles Doyle
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Sent: Nov 7, 2007 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "Drouth"

I believe Larry is speaking historically: Until the 16th century, "autor" or "autour" was the normal spelling, presumably representing the standard English pronunciation. Sometime in the 15th century, Frenchmen started spelling the word "authour," which would (probably) represent the same pronunciation as "autour." However, when the French (mis?-)spelling "authour" made its way to England, Englishmen began pronouncing the word with an unhistorical [T] or theta.

Similarly with the proper name "Anthony" . . .

--Charlie
____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:10:04 +0000
>From: ronbutters at AOL.COM
>
>"Be" what? How else would one spell these words (or pronounce them as they are normally uttered in the USA?)
>____________________
>
>Larry Horn wrote:
>
>Wouldn't the /T/ in "author" be one?  And the one in "Anthony" (U.S. pronunciation) be another?

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