From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,ffd9867424acf610 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news.glorb.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 18:56:09 -0500 Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 18:56:35 -0500 From: Larry Elmore User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050619 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Pronunciation References: <87r7ew3iu8.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> <87d5qg3gom.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> <42BC1283.AC62B862@hp.com> In-Reply-To: <42BC1283.AC62B862@hp.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.1.185.39 X-Trace: sv3-Di4JfHmf7gXkVKbEpEBgk8cnebb5/igYyMUyh8GjGQ/0wjVAC9B9ZTaRoi/rsD//ayS0w2DWLnnhJhe!0DBOLxrvR+sYawHppB4J8xDtfMDqnXVLDpu8jNNQyZBpE6ukfvjg71J8zCRjoii7OUSGXLb5DQ== X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.32 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:11633 Date: 2005-06-24T18:56:35-05:00 List-Id: cdm wrote: >>>Thanks. What about "GNAT"? Like the fly? >> >>The pronunciations I have heard for GNAT are not like the insect. >>For the insect, the G is silent, whereas the pronunciations I have >>heard for GNAT emphasize the G as non-silent (with the rest the same). > > > Yes, they use the "g". Like GNU, pronouncing each letter. > > (Why do languages bother throwing in silent letters?) Usually because pronunciation has changed while the spelling has remained static. Sometimes it's due to idiot grammarians "restoring" something along those lines, too, such as with the English "debt". --Larry