Some facts that might not be clear to all. European languages have about 25 letters and about 35 sounds Most languages have about 40 different ways to write these 35 sounds. English has more than thousand yes 1000! ways to write these same 35 sounds . That is why you dont know how to pronounce an english word you never have seen before. That is why you even dont know how to pronounce a simple word like Sloane.Even a word that has not be seen before is usually easy to pronounce for all the other european languages. Ben J.M.Zonneveld Institute of Biology,Leiden University, Clusius lab Wassenaarse weg 64, 2333 AL Leiden, The Netherlands Zonneveld@rulbim.Leidenuniv.NL Fax: +31-71-5274999. min temp -10C (15F)