Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 09:06:51 -0800 From: Peter McGraw Subject: Re: /er/ > /ar/ (was: Merzouri) With apologies for straying still a bit further from American dialects, the same development has occurred in some Dutch dialects (e.g. standard kerk [kErIk] 'church' becomes [karIk]) and in some Low Saxon ("Low German") dialects in Germany. Peter McGraw On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Robert Ness wrote: > 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 > > >