From: Guillaume Marcais <guslist@...>
Date: 2004-04-07T00:23:36+09:00
Subject: Re: how to match acented letters on windows

On Tue, 2004-04-06 at 10:21, Peter wrote:
> > Are you sure you want to do this?
> >
> > In latin languages, like french, you can strip the accents, and you have
> > basically the same pronunciation (though my girlfriend doesn't agree,
> > but my pronounciation of her language is so heavily accented anyhow, I
> > can't seeing it matter). But, there are other languages where a
> > character with an accent is a *completely* different vowel. I can't
> > recall the details, but one of the northern European languages famously
> > has its two most common vowels (think "e" and "o" in english)
> > distinguished by an accent. English speakers (myself included!) tend to
> > strip all accents while reading, assuming they are some kind of fine
> > detail, just a small modification of the basic sound, but that's not
> > true in a number of languages.
> 
> In French accents make a big difference in pronunciation. School example
> being "�l�ve", where the first "e" is pronounced as the start of the "a"
> in "safe", the second "e" is pronounced as "ai"  in "pair", and the last
> "e" is pronounced as the "i" in "first" (though shorter). Those are
> definitely different pronunciations of the same vowel, and they are
> (almost) always pronounced the same, depending on the accent only.
> 
> Also accents can change the meaning of words, classic example being "ou"
> (or) and "o�" (where), or "a" (has) and "�" (at). But that doesn't matter
> for pronunciation. Can't find an example off the top of my head where both
> the pronunciation and the meaning are different.
> 
> Peter

Not to make it a discussion about the French language, accent can change
the tense of a verb:

mange: eat
mang�: eaten

There the pronociation and the sense have been changed.

Guillaume.