Re: Éadig Éowine

Benct Philip Jonsson, On 21/05/2007 20:48:
> And Rosta skrev:
>> Well, based on what has been put forward so far, plus the
>> analogy of _Edwin_, I'd go for _Edy Ewin_ /'edi 'ju:In/ as
>> our best guess unless anybody can improve on it. The
>> <Edy>:/'edi/ looks odd; one wd expect <Eddy> or /'i:di/
>> given the usual spelling--pronunciation patterns; but I
>> lack the knowledge to make sense of this.
>
> Most certainly _Eady_, as the _éa_ was long in OE a would
> remain so through Middle and New English éa(*) > E: > e: >
> i:, modulo the loss of phonemic length in some Modern 'lects
> ("this is not YAEPT, this is not YAEPT, this is not YAEPT...")
> which would still give /i/ and not /I/ or /E/. Funny
> coincidence that my mother happens to be an Edith/Edie --
> which of course is from the same root and might/should be
> spelled _Eadith_ (OE Éadgýþ).
So is the /E/ in Edward, Edwin, Edmund due to shortening in a closed syllable?

> (* I'm leaving the pronunciation of OE _éa_ open, since
> there is no scholarly agreement, and my own view is a
> minority one.)
Ooh, tell me your view and the reasons... (I am agnostic out of inexpertise.)

>> As for York, on the Conculture list we once decided that
>> without the Danes it would have ended up as Everwich
>> /'ev(@)rIdZ/. Or was it Yorwich, /'jQrIdZ/ (rhymes with
>> Norwich and porridge)? I forget which...
>
> Why not Ewrich /'jurIdZ/, as a compromise and analogous
> to _hafoc > hawk_, although I do suspect influence from
> Old Norse _haukr_ there (Old Danish probably already
> being /h2:kr/.)
We didn't consider Ewrich (tho Norse influence such as analogy with _haukr_ would
not have been allowable in the hypothetical scenario). But I'm not sure how you
got to _Ewrich_ rather than, say, _Ewerwich_ /'ju@rIdZ/.

We could really do with a Ray Brown of Old English, couln't we...

>
> /Eady Ewine Edieson
--Wer.