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Re: [romconlang] Classical pronunciation of -ia/-ium?



On Tue, Jun 01, 2004 at 12:18:49PM -0400, Paul Bennett wrote:
> On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 17:12:39 +0100, Carl Edlund Anderson <cea@hidden.email> 
> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> > <i> is pronounced as the semivowel /j/ [snip] before a vowel
> [snip]

> It suggests to me it was pronounced /j/ (and thus -/ja/ and -/jum/)


You snipped too much :).  It is pronounced as the semivowel at the
beginning of words before a vowel.  That's not (1) at the beginning of words,
(2) before a vowel; it is /j/ only when it is *both* at the beginning of a word
*and* before a vowel.  The "before a vowel" is needed so you don't
try to pronounce <imbrium> as /jm=br=jUm/ or some such instead of /ImbrIUm/.

-Mark