Re: sound change

Tristan Alexander McLeay scripsit:
> This led me to thinking about OE /a:/ to ME things.
>
> OE /a:n/ became PDE /wVn/, presumably via ME /O:n/ (judging by its
> spelling). Does anyone know why?
The received explanation is that /wVn/ started as a joke, and caught on.
This sounds implausible, but the compounds "alone" (all-one) and
"only" (one-ly) keep the /own/ pronunciation.  And it's not
unheard of: the odd phrase "That's the ticket" < "That's etiquette",
from a mispronunciation of "etiquette" with stress on the penult.

> OE /hwa:m/ became PDE /hu:m/, presumably via ME /hwo:m/
Pronouns are funny.  We still don't have a good explanation of
"she", for example.

> OE /na:m/ became PDE /neim/
>
> And yet the general given sound change is OE /a:/ > ME /O:/ > PDE /@u/.
I can only guess that there was a split in OE /a:/: some remained /a:/
rather than moving to /O:/, and were moved to /ei/ by the Great Vowel Shift.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter