Re: RV: Old English
| From: | yl-ruil <yl-ruil@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, March 28, 2000, 15:48 |
|---|
Basileus wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Mar 2000 19:15:22 -0800, Sally Caves <scaves@...>
> wrote:
>
> >> Note the vocalism: _sceadu_, not _scadu_ (AFAIK, occurring
> >> in all OE dialects;
>
> - Indeed, this was a precipitate statement. I didn't think e. g.
> of 'second fronting' (Kentish etc.).
>
> >> with a palatalizing effect of _sc_
>
> I meant the diphthong -ea-. PGerm /a/ ( + dental + back vowel) should
> yield WS /a/, shouldn't it? As in _talu_ ( > tale; sorry for possible
> misspelling, no references handy).
>
> The further change /a/ > <ea> may point to palatal quality of what was
> spelled <sc>, for it resembles /u/ > <eo> after /j/ in _geong_, etc.
The fracture diphthong /æa/ "ea" normally derives from PGmc /au/, contrast
German auch and OE eac. In this case it is from u-mutation of the
following -w. This doesn't happen for talu because it derives from OS tala,
in turn from PGmc *talô.
AFAIK (see! I used the acronym!) eo derives from high vowel + w as in *iwwis
> eow and *juwungaz > geong. Often the e of geong is not found, generally in
Mercian and other Anglian dialects, deriving from the contracted form of
*juwungaz, *jungaz.
Dan