compost happens (was: Re: Y?)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Jacob Haagerup's informative note (thank you) sent me to a fresh look at my
lightly used Italian/English dictionary. In addition to y and j there are
notes on the rare use of h, k, w, and x, primarily for technical terms (such
as X-raggi, kg, km, watt) and in Italian words imported directly from other
languages, usually English: yacht, yankee, whiskey, water-closet, whist. The
longest of these lists is for the letter h; some sixteen examples, starting
with hamster, handicap, hangar, harem. Just past the philosophical hegeliano
and the chemical helium there is hertziano, and the second one after that is a
native Italian interjection, hihon!, for he-haw, the braying of an ass. The
list ends, appropriately enough, with humour and humus.

 John H.

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