> > Nine letters, seven phonemes, one syllable.
>
> Well, 9 letters and 1 syllable but 5 phonemes. The <tch> sound can be
Sorry, it seems we both miscounted.
I pronounce "scratched"
S K R A' CH T
...which is six phonemes, no?
> broken down into [t] and [sh], but /tsh/ is one phoneme in English (and
> Itallian and Spanish, but two in German and French --it depends on whether
> the sound came from two syllables meeting or from one sound at an earlier
> point in the development of the language.
You're right, I did miscount the T and CH as sounded separately when, in
fact, they are not sounded separately in the specified words.
> <e> in the verb inflection isn't pronounced.
Yep, true.
Anyway, my apologies for bringing the digression back to the list for its
conclusion.
MMB