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--- Christophe Grandsire skrzypszy: > Indeed, I've often been surprised at that ;))) . I often feel like saying > *"achtig" but manage to correct myself before it's too late ;))) . BTW, do > you know where the extra "t" comes from? Well, what I remember is that this "t-" was already inserted in the period of Early Middle Dutch. I should check where it comes from; probably from the preposition "te", but I have no idea why. Anyway, this "t-" was prefixed not only before 80, but also before 60, 70, and 90. Thus: (t)zestig > zestig (t)zeventig > zeventig (t)achtig > tachtig (t)negentig > negentig In other words: the "t" was present in all these cases, but except for "tachtig" it always dropped. But behold: it left some traces in the pronunciation! While "zes" and "zeven" ought to be pronounced [zEs] and ['zef@n], the correct pronunciation of "zestig" and "zeventig" is still ['sEst@x] and ['sef@nt@x] (what matters in this case is of course only the first letter; the rest can vary by dialect). Voicing of the first letter of 60 or 70 can be heard sometimes, but that is a typical example of hypercorrection, and to my ears it sounds strange. > PS: Yes indeed, I'm back! ;))) . I noticed. Welcome back! :))) Jan ===== "Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus For a better Internet experience http://www.yahoo.co.uk/btoffer