Re: THEORY(?): ARSE (was: RE: [CONLANG] Latin (was Language universal?)

And Rosta scripsit:

> > I don't know if it was a euphemism, or just an ordinary sound change
> > [ars] > [a:s] > [&s].
>
> Have any other words in US English undergone such a change?
I can't think of any.

> Or is the idea that the phonology of this taboo word has been borrowed
> into high prestige rhotic accents from low prestige nonrhotic accents
> (New England Proletarian, Southern, AAVE), as has happened, for instance
> among young southern Brits who tend to replace local /bA:st@d/ with
> 'hard' 'gritty' northern /b&st@d/?
That can't be the direct explanation: nonrhotic dialects don't front [A]
to [&] when historic [r] is lost.  Perhaps the true history is
[ars] > [a:s] > [as], with [&s] then created by "interdialectal
borrowing with analogical sound change".

I don't know the proper name for this process, but I can give an
example.  A child speaking a rhotic dialect and whose idiolect did not
yet contain the word "God" /gAd/ borrowed the word from another child
who spoke a non-rhotic dialect.  The second child's /gAd/ became
the first child's /gArd/, homonymous with GUARD.

But my main claim is that the lexical item ASS was originally
irrelevant, i.e. it was not used euphemistically for ARSE.
Though when ASS and ARSE came to have the same
pronunciation /&s/, there were definite effects on ASS, which
came to pick up some of the taboo on ARSE. It was mostly
replaced by the synonym DONKEY, except in two important contexts.

The first of these is the Bible, from which one can derive many
outrageous puns by reading "ass(es") as ARSE(S), whereof these
are but a few.  (No offense intended to anyone.)

Genesis 043:018 [...] [H]e may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and
        take us for bondmen, and our asses.

Exodus 020:017 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not
        covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his
        maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass [...].

Numbers 022:021 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass [...].

Numbers 022:032 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou
        smitten thine ass these three times? [...]

Joshua 009:004 They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been
        ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses [...].

Joshua 015:018 And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him
        to ask of her father a field: and she lighted off her ass [...].

1 Samuel 008:016 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and
        your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

(This next verse is irrelevant, but I can't resist it; in some editions of
the King James Bible, words not present in the original but supplied by
the translator are *italicized*, making a comic contrast with the modern
use of italics for emphasis, thus:

1 Kings 013:027 And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they
        saddled *him*.)

The other major context for ASS is its figurative sense "fool".  The
evidence from other dialects is that this sense attached to ASS, not to
ARSE, but it is clear that many collocations, such as DUMB ASS and HORSE'S ASS,
now refer to ARSE instead.  DUMB has here the American sense "stupid",
rather than the original sense "unable to speak", leading to this final
double pun:

2 Peter 002:016 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with
        man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.


--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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