Re: USAGE: writ [was Re: Here, *Here*, and There, *Ther

On Tuesday, July 2, 2002, at 08:15 , agricola wrote:

> yscreus il Th. Wier:
[snip]

> In English, onset clusters need to be at least two spaces distant >from
> the first of the cluster to the second, such that [kr] and [ny] >are
> licit onset clusters, but *[pt], *[pn] and *[nl] are not.  In the >case
> of [wr], there is no distance at all (although historically <r> was >a
> trill), which is why I'm surprised that you would have it.
>
>> The other structure that you mention, [w_0], is only the voiceless
>> >version of [w].
>
> I don't mean a vl. [w]. At least, I'm quite sure I don 't.
But that is what [w_0] is.

> How do you pronounce it?
[w_0]   :)
In the registers where I would make a distinction between _which_ and
_witch_ the former is voiceless [w].

> My [hw] is like my [kw] except that there is an [h] in stead of a [k]. I
> hope that makes some sense.
It certainly does.  That's how I'm sure my Saxon ancestors pronounced it
and why they wrote it as {hw} - and
not the silly Norman {wh};  and the sound combo still survives this side
of the pond (or did till recently) in
parts of Scotland.  (Are you sure you're not a crypto-Shetlander?    ;)

Ray.