| From: | Michael Poxon <m.poxon@...> |
|---|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, December 18, 2001, 12:36 |
I would guess /r/ became /l/ by dissimilation with the preceding /s/. The Old English name took the form of -scrobbes- /Srobes/ whether in Scrobbesbyrig (Shrewsbury, the capital) or Scrobbescyre (Shropshire). Norman French liked initial consonant clusters just as much as Modern French does(!) and a possible outline evolution could have been: /Sr/ (OE form) /S@r/ (separation of consonant cluster) /s@r/ (S>s) /s@l/ (dissimilation of /r/ from phonetically fairly close /s/) Or something similar... Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anton Sherwood" <bronto@...> To: <CONLANG@...> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2001 8:53 AM> > The Normans broke up the cluster and (as in various other names, notably > *cester) changed /S/ to /s/; but how /r/ became /l/ is beyond me. > > > -- > Anton Sherwood -- http://www.ogre.nu/