Re: I'm back, and Tairezazh update ...

Andreas Johansson wrote:

> Hello again. I'm now back to mail, and I look forward to participating in
> the list again. I hope you all had a nice Christmas and New Year (or
> whatever holidays you may've been celebrating since mid-Dec!).
Welcome back!

> One thing discovered when trying to write a reasonably complete accout is
> that there were alot more leaks in the grammar than I thought ... some of
> these are now tightened, which's resulted in, among other things, a more
> systematic system of non-personal pronouns. And a number of
> irregularities,
> of course.
Yay! Irregularities!

> PS Can anybody enlighten me as to the etymology of the word "blackguard",
> and why it, according to my sister's dictionary at least, is
> pronounced as
> if "blaggard"?
It's a compound of the words 'black' and 'guard', hence the spelling.
Many compounds' pronunciation is reduced to something less transparent;
cf. 'cupboard' or the earlier pronunciation of 'waistcoat' ('wesket').
As in 'cupboard', the two consonants merged. Just language change in
action. (I find it odd, though, that the second syllable of 'blackguard'
retains its value (/bl&ga:d/)* whereas 'cupboard' becomes /kab@d/. Just
English at work, I guess.)

*Disclaimer: I've never used this word. My pronunciation is based on the
one in the Macquarie Dictionary, as is my derivation. (My reading of
your '"blaggard"' was actually /bl&g@d/.)

Tristan.

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