Re: USAGE: German 'be' (was: Re: Person distinctions in languages?{

On 4 Feb 2005, at 11.49 pm, Andreas Johansson wrote:

> Incidentally, the 'r' of _warst_ is often lost pronunciation; I say
> [va:st] in
> informal speech. It would be nifty if this were sound-change undoing an
> analogical intrusion!
Well, I'm not sure how the ME '(salt) saler' was pronounced, but
apparently it was changed into '(salt) cellar'.  If 'saler' was
pronounced with a short A, then 'cellar' and 'saler' would both be
pronounced /s&l@/ in Melbourne, so it's a similar idea, with an
unnatural form and a hypothetical natural form ending up the same.
OTOH, if I understand the definition of 'salt cellar' correctly, I
actually call them either 'salt shakers' or 'salt pigs'. I have *no*
idea how they came to be called salt pigs, but that's what Mum calls
it, so that's what I call it.

--
Tristan.