End of ADS-L Digest - 1 Dec 1995 to 2 Dec 1995

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There are 18 messages totalling 360 lines in this issue.



Topics of the day:



 1. /w/ and /hw/ (5)

 2. So fun (3)

 3. I before E (4)

 4. Slow response to postings

 5. -head (4)

 6. talking heads



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Date:  Sun, 3 Dec 1995 09:07:41 -0500

From:  "Dennis R. Preston" <preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU>

Subject: Re: /w/ and /hw/



Hmmmmmm. This does not help in the issue I raised. The suggestion that a

German substratum provides the [u] pronunciation (rather than the more

general [o]) addresses my question. It is intuitively satisfying since I

think I noticed this phenomenon first in Milwaukee, a well-known repository

of such features. Tony's observation raises another issue. Why is 'whore' a

'wh' word at all? If it is from Latin 'karus,' the [a] to [o] business is

clear, but it should have been Latin 'kw' to become English 'wh,' (that is,

'hw'). So, Anglicists, why is it 'wh' at all?

Dennis (who has forgot too much of his Germanic philology) Preston

preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu



>The word "whore" derived from Lat. karus 'dear (one)' where acc. to the First

>Consonant Shift [k] > [h] ~ [x]. This might be of some help.

>

>    \tony