Darwinian evolution of letter sounds :D

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by DaveC426913, Feb 13, 2017.

  1. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Rifling through some sketches. Came across this diagram I made of how all modern names of letters speciated from one of two common ancestors.



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  3. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I don't see the British/Canadian name of the letter Z. They call it "zed." This obviously derives from the original Greek name of the letter, "zeta," via its German name, "zed," pronounced "tset."
     
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  5. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Superscript/footnote 2.
     
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  7. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    That isn't Darwinian evolution. There are other mechanisms/modes of evolution (Lamarckian, etc). I don't know the name of that one.
     
  8. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    This isn't letter sound but simply grouping English / American letter names into phonetic similarity of those names.

    It's also not evolution, but I think you know that.

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    personally I'd call it simply a reductionist approach of grouping, but that doesn't necessarily equate to there having been an evolution.
     
  9. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Yes. Letter sounds are called phonemes. This is about letter names.

    Uh yeah.

    I was amused one by a guy who wrote to 'Smarties Candy' (or was it M&Ms) about his efforts to breed a superior smartie.
    He would open a box and take out two candies.
    Put them on the table and apply a crushing force. The first one to break would get eaten.
    The other would be put back in the arena of death against the next opponent.
    When he finished the box, he would have one superior Smartie, which he would mail back to the company for breeding stock.
     
  10. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Lol!
    I hope they sent him a good supply for that!

    Reminds me of "The Office" where Brent would throw half the job applications into the bin on the basis that he wanted an employee who was lucky!

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