Re: Announcement: The birth of Ophal Project

[Tim Mensch <tim-lua-l@...>]

On 8/18/2011 9:09 AM, steve donovan wrote:
> Also, 'ophal' is not _pronounced_ like 'offal'; by the usual rules of
> English pronunciation, the 'o' will be long, not short.  That is, it
> sounds like 'oh-fal', not 'offl'.

Sorry, but the rules for English pronunciation that I learned are that a
vowel makes a long sound when followed, either immediately or one letter
later, by another vowel. Otherwise it's a short sound. Like in
"otherwise".  Ostritch, oscillate, and others follow the same pattern.

Note "open", with the e, makes the long "o" sound. I'm coming up short
on other examples, but I promise you that's the way I learned the rule,
and that it's only really common short words ("or", "only", etc.) that
break the rules.

Name it what you want. I just have a hard time letting misleading
statements stand.

Tim