h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I really, really think there needs to be a letter added to the English alphabet to represent the glottal stop where all the lost 'T's go.

Written language is a bit like a musical score. It's a way of passing on the sound to people who weren't there to hear it. But there's no combination of letters that can convey the glottal stop. It's impossible.

What other letters do you think we need?

At least another 47 vowel sounds. And that's just for British regional accents.

Vowels being pronounced differently isn't really what I was thinking of - our notation can make an approximation of most of them. But there are certain sounds we just don't have the letters for.

Well, notation can approximate the glottal stop. The notation is a sort of question mark without the dot at the bottom.

Not one of the twenty-six - check
Represents a sound the twenty-six can't make - check
Taken from IPA - check, but you can't have everything

Sounds a little like the twenty-seventh letter!

Other Letters?

. the Welsh 'dd' (approximated by th in the and then but not in think or thank)
. the welsh 'll' as in Llangollen
. the scots 'ch' as in loch

The sound of someone blowing a raspberry.

The sound of somebody blowing a raspberry.

Is that not 'ddllddllddllllddddllll' in Welsh?

Well, now, it is (or was) said that if you can pronounce all the welsh sounds, you can sound the pronunciations of all other languages though, I'm not sure Vogon would be included.

Useful? Maybe - it would make the R U B C thread a bit more flexible

Ah, eB, eC ...

I'm almost sure Gnomon would know the answer to this

Shame he's away just now


lil x

All I know about the missing letter is that I didn't take it.

This is abaat Jowj Osbown innit?

PP