Taboo replacements

[Brian M. Scott]

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Rick Mc Callister wrote:

>> So why didn't this word's homonym come into American English as
>> "arse" with an /R/?

> It's my understanding that "ass" began as a *euphemism* for "arse",
> which later disappeared from most dialects of American English.

As I understand it, 'ass' /&s/ is a relic of sporadic early (15th c.)
/r/-loss evidenced by such forms as <Dasset> 'Dorset' and inverted
spellings like <farther> 'father' in the Cely papers.  'Arse' /A:s/, on
the other hand, shows the later (17th - 18th c.) southeast English
/r/-loss following the vowel lengthening before /rC/ and /r#/.

Peter wrote:

> NZ English distinguishes between the two in casual speech as well - but in a
> school of mine there was a Scottish teacher who used to pronounce "ass" the
> way I would pronounce "arse".

I believe that the RP long-short contrast /A:/ - /&/ is neutralized to
/a/ in Scots Standard English.

Brian M. Scott