Re: English diglossia (was Re: retroflex consonants)

Tim May scripsit:

>  > Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
>  >
> Just how clever are you being here, John?  My book of latinisms
> attributes that to a John Owan (d. 1602).
Not me, though I might add him to my "Not This John Cowan" page
(http://www.ccil.org/~cowan/notme.html).  But obviously named according
to the same pattern, Welsh rather than Irish variety.  I bet the name
was rightly Owens = son of John, just like my own (Ma)cOwen.  As for
the vowel variation, that's trivial -- my grandfather spelled it
"Coen" and almost surely said /kou@n/ when he came to this country.
The spelling changed shortly thereafter, and the pronunciation in my
father's time -- allegedly a mistake by his high school football coach
that stuck.

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_