Comment Re:On the other hand, Spanish has (Score 1) 1183
The digraph elimination took me quite young so I've no problem looking up stuff in dictionaries. I do however still have one at home which lists these digraphs as separate entries. I'm not completely sure of the resons for the elimination of digraphs, but I wouln't agree to make it more like other languages. Each language has its own differences. AFAIK, Spanish is the only language with 'ñ' in its alphabet. The fact that it doesn't really break much by deleting digraphs (after all, they are written as two letters anyway) shouldn't be an excuse for imitating others.
The 'x' and 'j' conversion makes sense depending on how you look at it. Before the conversion, 'j' had the same sound as it has in most other languages (English, French and German for sure, probably others) and the 'x' had the Greek chi sound. Now we have the 'j' and the 'g' with that sound (which in some sounds overlap and there are only general rules as to usage) and the 'x' is now 'cs'.
Some of the
'Ç' had a sound similar to the 'z' in Italian or German which in most cases changed into the modern 'z' sound.
According to the Panamerican Doubt Dictionary (Diccionario panamérico de dudas), México is the recommended way to write the country name and the derived words as is the one used there and most if not all of southamerica. Méjico is an accepted form and used to be the normal way of writing in Spain.
Y/ll does indeed overlap in most places but some still use the pure 'll' sound. B/v are a remnant from Latin. There has never been a difference and both are pronounced 'b'. During the 18th Century reform, and effort was made to use whichever was used in the Latin form, but some words slipped so we now have more inconsistencies.
The 'h' at the beginning of words is kept mainly as a way to differenciate words and as a signal that there was something else there before. In English, you keep the 'k' in knock, kneee et al. In french you the circunflex accent (ê) where in the Latin form there was an 's' after it (Fenêtre - Fenestra).
The 'x' and 'j' conversion makes sense depending on how you look at it. Before the conversion, 'j' had the same sound as it has in most other languages (English, French and German for sure, probably others) and the 'x' had the Greek chi sound. Now we have the 'j' and the 'g' with that sound (which in some sounds overlap and there are only general rules as to usage) and the 'x' is now 'cs'.
Some of the
'Ç' had a sound similar to the 'z' in Italian or German which in most cases changed into the modern 'z' sound.
According to the Panamerican Doubt Dictionary (Diccionario panamérico de dudas), México is the recommended way to write the country name and the derived words as is the one used there and most if not all of southamerica. Méjico is an accepted form and used to be the normal way of writing in Spain.
Y/ll does indeed overlap in most places but some still use the pure 'll' sound. B/v are a remnant from Latin. There has never been a difference and both are pronounced 'b'. During the 18th Century reform, and effort was made to use whichever was used in the Latin form, but some words slipped so we now have more inconsistencies.
The 'h' at the beginning of words is kept mainly as a way to differenciate words and as a signal that there was something else there before. In English, you keep the 'k' in knock, kneee et al. In french you the circunflex accent (ê) where in the Latin form there was an 's' after it (Fenêtre - Fenestra).
