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Re: Spelling pronunciations (was: rhotic miscellany)

From:Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>
Date:Friday, November 12, 2004, 4:15
On Wednesday, November 10, 2004, at 07:51 , Tristan Mc Leay wrote:

> Andreas Johansson wrote: > >> Quoting John Cowan <jcowan@...>: >> >> >>> Old English had [xw-], and though the majority of dialects now have [w-] >>> , >>> >>> some still have [hw-] or [W]. In Scots, [xw-] became [kw-] for a while, >>> as shown by older Scots spellings like quha (who) and quhilk (which), >>> (now written "wha" and "whilk"). >>> >>> >> >> I was of the impression that 'quh' itself indicated [xw], on analogy >> with 'ch' = >> [x] and 'th' = [T]? Seems saner than using it for [kw], for which simply >> 'qu' >> should immediate present itself. >> >> > > That's what I thought too.
Yes, you & Andreas are quite correct. Earlier borrowing into Welsh also have the /xw/ sound (actually [Xw] in Welsh), e.g. chwip ,-- whip, chwisgu <-- whisk(e)y.
> I also thought some Scottish dialects pronounced it as some f-like sound > (probably [P] ... I mean,
In fact it was [f]. It persisted in some areas at least till the early part of 20th century. I suspect it has died out now.
> [p\]), and that this had somehow influenced > the spelling of Maori so that <wh>=/f/ nowadays (at least by > English-speakers using Maori words).
Yep - I think there's little doubt about Scots influence. |wh| is still pronounced either [hw] or [w_O], unlike us lazy southerners who just say [w]. Ray =============================================== http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown ray.brown@freeuk.com =============================================== Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight, which is not so much a twilight of the gods as of the reason." [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]

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John Cowan <cowan@...>