Re: RV: Old English

yl-ruil <yl-ruil@...> wrote:

>The OE word for shadow was sceadu, neither skaedu or scaedu, from the
>Proto-Germanic *skaðwaz. In the early OE period, c. 700 CE, sceadu (which is
>the "classical" or West Saxon form) was pronounced /'scæadu/. C was a
>palatal stop before front unround vowels at this point. Before this the
>combination had been /sk-/.
I take this to mean that phonemic /sk/ was always [sk] first, and then
split into [sc] before front unrounded vowels, [sk] otherwise. (Just
correct me if I'm wrong.)

>Hope this has been of use.

It has. Thanks a lot!


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html
  ... I cannot combine any characters that the divine Library
  has not foreseen, which in some of its secret tongues do not
  bear some terrible meaning. No-one can articulate a syllable
  not filled of caresses and fears; which is not, in some one
  of those languages, the powerful name of a god...
                   Jorge Luis Borges, _The Library of Babel_