X>Y>X

[Tom Wier]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
"D. Anthony Tschetter-Breed" wrote:
 
> Forgive me for being anectdotal, but when topic comes up of sound changes
> from X to Y and back to X, I always think of the English:
>
> askan > ask > ax (in some dialects, for example Black American English)
>
> One could propose that this is not an example of X>Y>X either on the
> grounds that the "ax" form is not an innovation but rather a retention of
> an earlier form, or perhaps that it's not systematic.  I don't know.  Any
> thoughts?
 
The form in question I believe is actually connected to other dialects in
the South which themselves go back to nonstandard dialects in England.
OE had both "bscian" and "bcsian", and dialects in America were not
homogenously from Southern England around London (on which dialect
the standard was based) or anything, so I find it far more likely that it's
merely a retention of the earlier form.
 
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Tom Wier <artabanos at mail.utexas.edu>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
 
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately corrupt; who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9
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