>>>>Jah, das ist richtig
>>>
>>>Das aitsch ist nicht necessary, ja?
>>
>>Nein, aber Ich höre zu viel Reggaemusik - Ich spreche als rastafarian Deutscher! :-)
>
>It's "ja", not "jah". The German language also uses the aitch for many purposes, but not to modify vowels...

I know. I said that, through love of Reggae music, I've got used to seeing Jah (Rastafari) so much I was speaking Rasta-German, so it was a slip of the tongue :-)

>
>>>The great vowel shi(f)t is still a mystery.
>>
>>Ich verstehe nicht
>
>...as you must in English, or otherwise you'd read every "a" as "ay", so you need to write "ah" to pronounce it as it was before that vowel shift.

Ah, you and you linguistic puns. You make me want to go and shift my vowels! :-)

>
>>>>>Thought I wouldn't notice, pay expensive attention etc, stb, itd.
>>>>
>>>>Expensive attention?
>>>
>>>Well surely not free if it has to be paid. Since attention is probably open source, I think the term is contradictory.
>>
>>Ah, I see :-) Perhaps it would be cheaper, then, for you to just lend an ear.
>
>Well, I'm not interested in that if the lender is charging too much interest.

Grooooooaaaan!

>
>>>And btw, I thought you'd ask about the stb and itd.
>>
>>Ah, I thought of, then I thought I'd have you biting your @ss cos I didn't, knowing that you wanted me to :-)
>>
>>I presumed one was the Serbian version and the other some other language you know. So what are they?
>
>"stb" is for Hungaian "és a többi" - and the more(s). The és is often abbreviated in speech to just s (pronounced sh).
>
>"itd" is Serbian (and the Russian is almost identical) for "i tako dalje" - and so further - to differ from the German "and so wider".