Re: English [dZ]
| From: | R A Brown <ray@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Friday, December 9, 2005, 20:56 |
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Mark J. Reed wrote:
> How did the letter |J| come to represent [dZ] in English, while
> continuing to represent [j] in the other Germanic languages? Was it
> because of French influence?
Precisely - after 1066, Norman French spelling conventions replaced the
Old English ones.
I assume there was a period when |J|
> represented [Z] in English,
No. In Old French |j| was pronounced /dZ/, and |ch| was pronounced /tS/.
For that matter 'soft c' was still /ts/, but as English did not possess
the affricate /ts/, that had no impact.
> between representing [j] and [dZ]... do we
> know when the change(s) happened?
It's French which changed. In France the earlier affricates were leveled
to simple fricatives sometime in the middle of 13th century
--
Ray
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