[Ansteorra] Take a moment to look it up (was Pronunciation)

[Michael Tucker]

Greetings, kinsmen:

I've been following a thread on the Ansteorra list. Someone posted a very
specific question: how to pronounce the ç (cedilla) in the Spanish surname
Cabeça de Vaca. The usual flurry of responses followed (including a couple that
actually attempted to answer the question, or provide some history of the name).
Sadly, most of the responses were of the form we too frequently see: "I don't
know, but <insert misinformation here>." Or, worse: "I don't know, but <insert
misinformation that has nothing to do with the question here>."

Kinsmen, if you are able to post to this list, you have email. And if you have
email, you probably have access to the Web. And if you have access to the Web,
you are connected to the largest reference library the world has ever known. You
shouldn't *ever* have to guess at answers to basic questions of fact. In the
time it might take you to compose a speculative or unhelpful response, you could
do a little research and learn the answer. You don't even have to be
exceptionally clever or bright, or even know your way around the "virtual
library". Just go to www.yahoo.com (or some other search portal), enter the
subject of your query (in this case "Cabeça de Vaca", or "Spanish pronunciation
cedilla") and click "Search". The "virtual librarian" will find the information
for you.

To do otherwise is to proclaim 1) that you are ignorant on the subject, 2) that
you are too lazy or impatient to do anything about your ignorance, and 3) that
you are too conceited to simply remain quiet, given your state of ignorance, and
wait for someone else (with more knowledge or time to look it up) to answer the
question. Personally, I don't think those are qualities one should be proud to
proclaim.

By the way, since no one else has provided a definitive answer to the original
question, here's as close as I could find to one (in a 10-minute search online):

The C-cedilla was originally created for the Aragonese, or Castillian language
(the forerunner of Spanish). That language had six sibilants, which were written
with c, ç, j, s, x and z. The cedilla was originally a "c" followed by a "z",
and was pronounced like English "sz" (like English "ascend" if you voice the "c"
a little hard; or like English "azure", if you voice the "z" a little extra
sibilantly). Gradually, the z was scooted over next to the c, then written
smaller beneath the c, and finally was reduced to the little diacritical mark
under the c. The word "cedilla" derives from Spanish "zedilla", meaning "little
z". In the original "Don Quixote", the x was pronounced like English sh, and
"Sancho Panza" was written "Sancho Pança".

During the Christian reconquest of Iberia (from the Muslims), the Castillian
language lost many of its voiced sibilants. (The standard hypothesis is that
this was the influence of Basque, which also is sibilant-poor, since a large
fraction of the soldiers of the reconquest were Basque.) Today, Modern Spanish
(i.e. New Castillian) has more sibilant alphabetic characters than it has
sibilant sounds for them to represent, so it has mostly discarded the cedilla.
It is still used in Portuguese, however.

Here is a *wonderful* reference of the evolution of the Spanish language,
including ancient and Medieval influences:
<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/2444/splatin.html>

I mean no disrespect to those who ask questions of this group. Online references
can be helpful, but they can also be uncertain. There are those among us who are
bona fide experts in their field, and it's a great idea to ask them first (or at
least "also"). But if you don't know the answer when someone poses a question,
please take a moment to look it up before scrambling for that "Send" button.

Master Michael Silverhands
giving Tadhg a run for the Grumpiest Pelican title