ğ vs. għ

Random linguistic observation on Turkish ğ and Maltese għ:

• In the written language, they are both represented by something based on the letter g
• They both used to stand for a [ɣ] sound (voiced velar fricative).*
• They are both no longer pronounced as a consonant in the standard language, but their presence lengthens adjacent vowels. Some (rural?) dialects still pronounce this sound as a consonant, though.

I find it interesting that they share those similarities.

* Maltese għ derives from two Arabic sounds: `ayn/ʕayn ع and ghayn/ġayn غ, only the second of which is a voiced velar fricative. (The first is a voiced pharyngeal fricative.) However, the (reflexes of the) two sounds merged in standard Maltese, though I believe there are (or at least, used to be not that long ago) dialects which preserve the distinction and not only pronounce għajn but pronounce it differently depending on whether it's a reflex of `ayn or ghayn.

(no subject)

Amy's getting really good at turning over pages—she'll not only often manage to turn over one page at once rather than a whole bunch, but also usually does it without creasing or tearing or otherwise harming the book.

(I'm still not letting her too close to my books, but it's progress!)

Users of MSIE 7 asked to "upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer"

I can't help but feel a bit of schadenfreude at this blog entry. Sometimes even some Microsoft’s own websites have been blocking access! was also fairly poignant.

User-agent sniffing is, in general, evil and over-used. Plz to be focussing primarily on content, not presentation, and using standards-compliant HTML and CSS, and try to degrade gracefully.

Random thought

In German, people who do not type with ten fingers but only with one or two are sometimes said to use the "Adler-Such-System": "erst langsam einkreisen und dann blitzschnell zuschlagen" -- "eagle search system (first, circle slowly above the goal, then swoop down quickly)". I believe an English equivalent is "hunt-and-peck system".

The German term mimics someone hovering over the keyboard with his finger while searching for the location of the key he wants to press, then pressing that key before going back to hovering with that finger while searching for the next key.