If you can stand the controversy, y AND w are vowels

[Laura Corin]

Which is actually pronounced "Ooo-elch" :D

 

Bill

 

The word for Wales in Welsh is 'Cwmru' and the language is 'Cwmraeg'.

 

Laura (not Welsh but, like J K Rowling, grew up on the borders).

Edited June 17, 2011 by Laura Corin

[LaxMom]

 

Now, shopping carts or shoes or crock pots...

 

Are you trying to start something?:001_huh:

[Halftime Hope]

In Louisiana, Ouachita is still spelled with ou.... Thanks for this interesting bit of info!

 

Yeah, I alway understood the spelling with ou to have French connections. What fascinates me about this is that the Wichita tribe seems to have had early contact (1710 onward) with the French, since at the time, Texas and Oklahoma were--I think--French territory. (No flames, if I got the dates wrong.)

 

With that in mind, I would have thought that OUichita and OUachita spellings might have stuck. Surprisingly, this other spelling variation remains and has stood the test of time.

[mcconnellboys]

I wonder - if they didn't have a written language, as most of the Native American groups did not, then it may have been that Indian Agents or others out in the Arkansas/Oklahoma area (after removals) were perhaps some of the first to set down some tribe names in writing and perhaps the standardized forms arose from those early usages. And I would not expect that many of those folks were of French heritage, so the usage of 'wa' or 'wi' instead of 'ou' would make sense as phonetic spellings were still in common usage. But we've talked before on these boards about how words coming from one language into another have changed pronunciation because those living in the area did not know, appreciate (or care, LOL) about the original pronunciations....Interestingly, a lot of these also are words of French origin....

 

Pierre, South Dakota is pronounced something like 'peer' I live in an area with a Versailles and an Athens. Long 'a' is employed in both cases....

[Halftime Hope]

I wonder - if they didn't have a written language, as most of the Native American groups did not, then it may have been that Indian Agents or others out in the Arkansas/Oklahoma area (after removals) were perhaps some of the first to set down some tribe names in writing and perhaps the standardized forms arose from those early usages. And I would not expect that many of those folks were of French heritage, so the usage of 'wa' or 'wi' instead of 'ou' would make sense as phonetic spellings were still in common usage.

 

Here's where it gets interesting: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/wichita/wichitaindianhist.htm

 

So, first contact with the Old World was with the Spanish (no w in Spanish), then w/ the French, from whom I would have expected ou. So, it is interesting to wonder, "Where did the w come from?"

 

But we've talked before on these boards about how words coming from one language into another have changed pronunciation because those living in the area did not know, appreciate (or care, LOL) about the original pronunciations....Interestingly, a lot of these also are words of French origin....

Pierre, South Dakota is pronounced something like 'peer' I live in an area with a Versailles and an Athens. Long 'a' is employed in both cases....

 

Yep, Texans are a funny lot in this regard:

 

Elsewhere Texas

Palestine => Palesteen

Joshua => Joshuay (long a)

Montague => Montague (rhymes with plague)

Mexia => Meh-HAY-uh (to be fair, others would probably have trouble with that name as well.)

 

There are others that escape me at the moment. :lol:

Alright, I've played long enough...must.go.be.productive.

[zaichiki]

Just to clarify: Welsh is in a separate language group from either Irish or Scottish Gaelic. It's more closely related to Breton and Cornish, I believe.

 

Laura

 

Good to know. Thanks. :001_smile:

[Ester Maria]

In Italian, there are so few w sounds I can't even come up with a word.

Actually, /w/, as a sound, is considered semi-vocal (or semi-consonant, if you prefer :D) in Italian, along with the /j/ sound - in addition to the regular seven vowels (A, E-1, E-2, I, O-1, O-2, U).

 

It appears mostly in diphtongs - think guerra, suoi, etc. The /w/ sound is there, it is just not spelled - when we teach children "phonics" (if such a thing even exists in Italian), we teach them that /w/ and /j/ appear in blending sounds and that that affects things such as separating the word by syllables (the simple rule of "count the vocals" which works for some other languages does not work for Italian for that reason, as many vocals can form a unique syllable because of that).