John:
> And Rosta scripsit:
>
> > i was thinking of the waning accents that don't rhyme moan/mown,
> > groan/grown
>
> Hmm. What's the distinction phonetically?
I can't remember. Only 1-2% of my students preserve the distinction,
so I haven't had the opportunity to study it enough to have remembered
the phonetic realization. And I am not currently under the same roof
as my linguistics library, so can't check what Wells says either.
> > But you're right: I was perhaps misled by the spelling
> > into thinking that _own_ was /own/ in Middle English, & I have no
> > way of checking
>
> On investigation it was ME _owen_ all right. It's just, I guess, that
> I'm not used to OE a: > ME o: initially, although in other places
> (sta:n > stone) it's the usual thing
Pete Bleackley:
> shtaving John Cowan:
> >And Rosta scripsit:
> >
> >> i was thinking of the waning accents that don't rhyme moan/mown,
> >> groan/grown
> >
> >Hmm. What's the distinction phonetically?
>
> In each case, the second ends with a consonant cluster "wn", rather than a
> single consonant "n"
In the accent from which part of the country?
Joe:
> > But you're right: I was perhaps misled by the spelling into thinking
> > that _own_ was /own/ in Middle English,
>
> IIRC, it was /u:n/
Then how come it doesn't rhyme with _town, brown, frown_ etc.?
--And.