Re: English questions

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tristan McLeay" <kesuari@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: English questions


> John Cowan wrote:
>
> >As for the unrounding of /y/, it must have been early in the Middle
> >English period; Chaucer shows /y/ only in French words spelled with "u",
> >if there; there is nothing to prove that [ju] was not already the
> >pronunciation.
> >
>
> I thought it was [iu] before it was [ju]? Or is that only in words spelt
> 'ew'? How come 'hue' is spelt 'hue' then, and not 'hew'? (To make the
> word look learned and Frenchy, perhaps? :) ) (And do we know if French
> /y/s ever were [y] in post-[y]-to-[i]-English, or if they were borrowed
> from the word go as [iu]/[ju]?)
>
> >--
> >With techies, I've generally found              John Cowan
> >If your arguments lose the first round
http://www.reutershealth.com
> >    Make it rhyme, make it scan
http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> >    Then you generally can                      jcowan@reutershealth.com
> >Make the same stupid point seem profound!           --Jonathan Robie
> >
> >
> Ah, but /sk&:n/ and /k&n/ don't rhyme properly :)
They do in my dialect. And they're pronounced /sk&n/ and /k&n/