Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 08:32:52 -0500 From: Robert Ness Subject: Re: Merzouri On Berkeley v Barclay: a following /r/ tends to lower vowels. In late ME through EmnE /er/ was often lowered to /ar/. Sometimes the lowering was permanent (star,farm), sometimes not(servant,sterling). Occasionally, doublets survive: Berkeley/Barclay, vermin/varmint, person/parson, clerk/clark, university/varsity. This lowering continues: girl,her, early, burr etc.though not in all dialects (eg. Scots, as you noted). On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Aaron Drews wrote: > -er- does not always refer to a schwa like sound in British > Englishes. The words _clerk_ and _derby_, eg, are pronounced with modern > realisations of [-a(r)-]. From what I understand, "Barkely" "Barcly" > (etc), and "Berkely" all spring from a common source, and all pronounced > with [-a(r)-]. The poet may have heard an Englishman or Scotsman say > "Berkely" with a back vowel, and "transcribed" his impression. > Nowadays, Berkely (as in U.C.), is pronounced with a schwa (RP) or > an epsilon (Scottish). All the other examples are still -ar-. > --Aaron > > > ===================================================================== ====== > Aaron E. Drews http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron > Ph.D. Candidate +44 (0)131 650-3485 > The University of Edinburgh fax: +44 (0)131 650-3962 > Departments of Linguistics and English Language >