• pet the cat, walk the dog@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    In no way am I elitist about it. I’m just opposed to the language moving away from being phonemic, and am rather alarmist about that prospect, even though I know full well that the pronunciation will drift away while the spelling stays conservative.

    ‘его’ is at least a typical consistent rule, mapping to the pronunciation ‘ево’ in the same places in various words, just like ‘eau’ in French. But the replacement of ‘ё’ with ‘е’ is just egregious violation of a letter that has its own sound, without any reason for that.

    • antonim@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      In no way am I elitist about it

      I think that equating respect for language with usage of the letter and vague guilt-tripping of people who don’t use it is elitist.

      the replacement of ‘ё’ with ‘е’

      It’s the other way around, actually, ‘e’ is the original letter and sound, the sound changed by the 18th century or so (as far as I’m aware) and then the modified letter was proposed but never made generally mandatory. People aren’t replacing anything, they’re writing same as always.

      ‘его’ is at least a typical consistent rule, mapping to the pronunciation ‘ево’ in the same places in various words

      The name Егор doesn’t follow it, but моего and сегодня do. Why? You have to explain the etymology of сегодня at the very least to make sense of it, undermining the consistency.

      • pet the cat, walk the dog@lemmy.world
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        43 minutes ago

        equating respect for language with usage of the letter and vague guilt-tripping of people who don’t use it is elitist

        Indeed, anyone using ‘q’ is better than others.

        Oh wait, could you please check real quick if ‘ё’, a letter of the alphabet taught in school, maps unambiguously to a specific sound?

        the modified letter was proposed but never made generally mandatory

        Well maybe it was proposed because ‘ё’ denotes a very particular sound? Which, notably, Western languages can never quite approximate with their feeble ‘yo’ attempts, though Nordic languages do have a vaguely similar ‘ø’ or somesuch.

        The name Егор doesn’t follow it, but моего and сегодня do. Why?

        Well, perhaps because the letters are in a different position? Why is /ˈlɔɹəns/ of Arabia not pronounced akin to /ˈsɛsəl/ B. Demille?

        • antonim@lemmy.world
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          12 minutes ago

          So yeah, you haven’t really responded to the statement that your position is elitist, or at least smartassery that no linguist actually supports.

          maybe it was proposed because ‘ё’ denotes a very particular sound?

          Indeed. And then it wasn’t made generally mandatory, and then the Russian language continued to work fine.

          Which, notably, Western languages can never quite approximate

          Why would that be remotely notable here? We’re talking about Russian spelling of Russian language.

          perhaps because the letters are in a different position?

          And what is that position that makes the difference?