zompist bboard

dhokarena56 wrote:I read somewhere that [a] was a sound in every language. But now I have nagging doubts...

I think that's /a/, not necessarily [a], and all /a/ really means in this case is "a phonemic low vowel of some sort".

I always that that this french form of the verb "louer" was crazy: loueait. orthographically, yes, but not phonetically. not sure how to pronounce it, though... An impossible form: it'd had to be "louerait" (conditional) or (louait) You can have all 5 vowels with less letters: o...