Date:  Thu, 23 Dec 1993 16:53:12 +0700

From:  Gwyn Williams <gwyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IPIED.TU.AC.TH>

Subject: Aches and Pains



Hello t'all and compliments of the season. A query:



 Thai learners of English consistently pronounce the word "headache"

as [hedeetS] and "stomach ache" as [stoma:tS eetS] (these being

approximate transcriptions of the Thai pronunciations). I had always

assumed that these were spelling pronunciations. However, in a recent

article about World Englishes in a local newspaper, it was said that

Hongkong English speakers also pronounce "headache" in a similar manner.



 Is this just the coincidence of spelling pronunciations? Or does it

reflect an older or "non-standard" pronunciation of English? My

dictionary gives OE acan for "ache". I am aware that <c> represented

a velar stop in OE, but that this sound was palatalized, but only before

front vowels, eg., OE cild "child". Were "stomach" and "ache" ever

palatalized? Or does any particular accent palatalize these words?



BTW my dictionary gives only Gk stomachos as the source for "stomach".

How is the <ch> pronounced?



Regards



Mr Gwyn Williams

Thammasat University

Bangkok

<gwyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ipied.tu.ac.th>