Re: YAEPT: apparently bizarre 'A's (was Re: YEAPT: f/T (was Re: Other Vulgar Lat

On 22/02/06, John Vertical <johnvertical@...> wrote, quoting
me quoting him:
> > > I thought that "hearth" was /h3rT/? If it has /Ar/ instead, I guess that
> > > makes "heart" a little more regular then. (Maybe there was a minor shift
> >of
> > > */E:/ > */a/ between h and r+coronal...)
> >
> >Nup, "hearth" definitely isn't /h3rT/... I know there was at one stage
> >a change of /Er/ -> /ar/;
>
> >I assumed this
> >was the same change (with the /E:/ > /E/ earlier), which would help
> >explain why "heard" is /h3:d/, if it shortened after the change.
>
> I still think the h might play a part in it too - or how do you explain
> "earth" not going thru the same shift then?
Same way I explained "heard" not going through the same shift
(shortened after the /Er/>/ar/ shift but before the /Er/>/@r/ shift).
How would you deal with it?

i.e., using the words "hearth, heard, earth, star, verse"
T0 hE:rT hE:rd E:rT stEr vErs
T1 hErT  hE:rd E:rT stEr vErs
T2 harT  hE:rd E:rT star ?vars
T3 harT  hErd  ErT  star vErs
T4 harT  h@rd  @rT  star v@rs

As for why they shortened when they did? I have no idea. There's been
a lot of irregular shortening in English, particularly with /E:/.
(It's worth noting tho that voiced obstruents often have longer vowels
& sonorants before them than unvoiced obstruents do.)

--
Tristan.