Re: phonology of borrowed words

Quoth John Cowan:

>> You Can't Have Your Kate And Edith Too.
>
> I've been curious for some time how the corruption "You can't have your
> cake and eat it too" caught on.  The original and sensible form was
> "You can't eat your cake and have [= keep] it too", but for some reason
> people got in the habit of saying it the other way around.
Interestingly, Trask in "Historical Linguistics" gives the source of this as
a folk etymology of an original "Halve your cake and eat it whole." Where
did this phrase come from, anyway?

-Josh

----------
Josh Brandt-Young <vionau@...>
"After the tempest I behold, once more, the weasel."
(Mispronunciation of Ancient Greek)

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