Re: CHAT: Brithenig-heads

On Mon, 12 Apr 100, John Cowan wrote:

>Padraic Brown scripsit:
>
>> In the south of Kemr, y hYspanow maintain this same custom. The
>> spelling of your name would be unchanged, except Eugenio would
>> most likely be Ewgenis. The pronunciation would be different, of
>> course: ['karlos EwdZ'Eni 'tonson pinz'o]. Someone unfamilliar
>> with English names might say [ton'so]. Though -mp- is an allowable
>> cluster, -mps- is not; hence the simplification to -ns-.
>
>How about plain -ms-?  The p is a result of English speech habits:
>Thompson has the less common variant Thomson (also Tompson, Tomson)
>and is simply "Tom's son" in any case.
In modern speech, if a Saxon were to introduce himself as
"Thompson", a Kernu speaker would probably repeat it as
['toms@n].

Historically, -mpC- > -nC-; see page 85 of the Grammar, or if
you prefer, rules 23 and 37 of la Cavurn's "Latin to Romance
in Sound Tables". The only word I can think of off hand that
is -mps > -ms is temps, [tEm(s)], but that might be because
it's word final.

I doubt it would lead to any confusion; probably a "you say
[t@m'etow], I say [t@m'atow]" sort of thing. Older Thompsons
would probably have the "native" ['tonson], for the simple
fact that it is long a part of the language; visitors or newer
Thompsons would probably have the "foreign" ['tomson].

Padraic.

>
>--
>John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
>       I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin
>