Re: English |a|
| From: | Rob Haden <magwich78@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, January 17, 2005, 3:26 |
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On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 09:29:47 -0500, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:
>I have some questions about English "a" sounds. I don't want to start
>YAEPT, but I am interested in synchronic as well as diachronic
>differences.
>
>First, how did the word |father| (/faDr=/ modulo dialectical
>differences; here I'm using /a/ to represent the bottom of the vowel chart,
>ignoring differences between [a], [A], [6], etc.) avoid being
>Great Vowel Shifted into something like /fejDr=/?
The weird thing about that word is that the Old English form was |faeder|,
pronounced something like /f&De4/. So it should've become either /fEDr=/
or /fiDr=/, depending on whether it was treated as a long vowel. Why
the /&/ was backed to /a/, I don't know. Or, perhaps the orthography was
wrong in |faeder|.
- Rob