Re: R: Re: RV: Old English

On Wed, 29 Mar 2000 15:03:46 +0200, Mangiat <mangiat@...> wrote:

>Vasily wrote:
>> Actually, I was going to say 'all _sc_ in all positions', but there do
>> exist a few difficult exceptions like _ask_.
All this discussion of Old English matters forced me to consult Carl
Brunner eventually.

He says, roughly, that <sc> is not palatalized *between* two back
vowels (_ask_ < _áscian_ < *áskojan), but he does not mention words
like _rush_ etc.

>> All Modern English words with initial [sk] are borrowings.
He also writes that <scr> > /skr/ might have been the regular
development in some (Northern?) dialects. He finds conspicuous
in this respect such modern words as _scream_ and _screech_.

>What about skate, skein, sketch, skewer, skill, skimp, skin...?
>Are they Norman loanwords?
Uph... Does anybody have Webster to hand? _Skein_, _skill_, _skin_
are Scandinavian loans (often cited as such), _sketch_ seems to be
of Germanic origin but must have come through a Romance mediator
(cf. French _esquisse_), _skate_ might be a borrowing from Dutch, but
I'm not sure...

>Luca

Basilius