Can you beat 'yacht'...

[Ian H]

This wiki article will tell you about the Scottish 'z'. In English the obsolete thorn, often written as 'y', causes some confusion.

 

[raleighnut]

I think English may be alone in having so many alternate rules for pronunciation and orthography. I guess this is due to the fact that it has bits of Anglo Saxon, French, German, Latin and all kinds of different stuff mixed up in it.

French, on the other hand, is very consistent (apart from a few place names like Reims) in that you can get to the pronunciation from the written word quite consistently - but it does have funny rules, so you end up only pronouncing half the word.

Finnish is great. Pronunciation is guaranteed from the written word, and the rules are simple. Unfortunately the rest of the language is hideously complex.

I got as far as please/thank you and are you all right in Finnish after 2 1/2yrs with Sari (apart from being able to swear quite comprehensively)

EDIT as for the rest...................en tieda

 

[Dogtrousers]

I got as far as please/thank you and are you all right in Finnish after 2 1/2yrs with Sari (apart from being able to swear quite comprehensively)

EDIT as for the rest...................en tieda

En minäkin. (Me neither)

 

[raleighnut]

En minäkin. (Me neither)

Kiitos

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

This wiki article will tell you about the Scottish 'z'. In English the obsolete thorn, often written as 'y', causes some confusion.

Thanks, I as sayng that earlier with names like Dalziel (the first 'l' isn't pronounced either) and Queenzieburn, but never looked it up, so thanks!

Incidentally, I seem to remember a 'Z' sound in Russian with a character looking like that '3' or similar.

Yes, here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze_(Cyrillic)

 

[ianrauk]

A couple more Kentish names. (Was reminded on my ride today)

Igtham, pronounced Eyetam.
Shipbourne, pronounced Shibun.