CMD vs. College Football

[Turbine]

A. Conspiracy theorists
B. Scientific establishment elite

eror

[moorecajun]

Oooo... did you really want to get me started?

'-er' and '-or' both work for designating someone who does things: a writer can also be an author, but an evaluator is also an assessor. It's 'bettor' because the alternative is 'better'... and that's a different word.

As for longevity, it can be pronounced either long-jevity or lon-jevity.

Now, on to the big bugbear, why is the 'g' soft? To the Romans, G & C were the same letter (Gaius Caesar, Caius Caesar, same thing). The two started getting softened in the Romance languages. It's a 'chapel' (French, chapelle) instead of capella (which comes from St. Martin's cape... long story). It's château instead of castellum. Etc. A lot of the English words that start with 'ch' come to us as French adulterations of Latin words that start with a 'c.'

In front of 'a' and 'u,' a 'c' or 'g' is hard (Caesar is supposed to be a hard 'c'... compare to Kaiser.) But in front of i's and e's, the g or c is softened: consider 'gigantic,' or 'Genghis.' And 'Genghis' brings up another consideration: In French, Spanish & Portuguese (and in English from the French) an 'h' softens the 'c,' but in Italian and Romanian, it hardens it: in addition to Genghis compare chiaroscuro vs. cioccolato. In French and Spanish, to harden 'c' they add a 'u': French cuisine, Spanish cuenta. To soften a 'c' before an 'a' or 'u,' you follow it with an i or e, but the French can also use a cedille: français.

Finally, the soft 'c' in the western Romance languages is an 's' sound, but in the Eastern, it's a 'ch' sound...

Tired yet?

This is why they shouldn't give me holidays off...

I was just about to post this; I am so glad I read the earlier posts first!



Good information!