LL-L "Etymology" 2008.07.14 (07) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 14 July 2008 - Volume 07
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From: Travis Bemann <tabemann at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.07.14 (02) [E]

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Etymology
>
> Lowlanders,
>
> Something weird seems to have happened with "one" and "any". As far as I
> know, "any" comes from "one" (+ig). The vowels are different, one round,
one
> not. Due to what? Different dialects? Phonological processes?

There addition of "-ig" must have resulted in some sound shift in Old
English thanks to the workings of Anglo-Frisian Brightening. One
should note that there is OE "ǽnig" /"{:niG/ for NE "any" while there
is OE "án" /A:n/ for NE "one", which is paralleled by there being OE
"nǽnig" /"n{:niG/ for NE "none" and OE "nán" /nA:n/ for NE "no". Of
course, Late Old English /A:/ became Late Middle English /O:/ which
ultimately became NE /o(U)/, while LOE /{:/ became LME /E:/ which
became /i(:)/ in English dialects descended from southeastern Early
New English regularly but thanks to irregular sound shift processes
also yielded /E/ and /e(I)/ in such dialects as well. I suspect that
the modern pronunciation of "any" reflects such an irregular /E/
despite the spelling used.

> In Scots it's the other way around: ane [e(:)n] 'one', ony ~ onie [o(:)ne]
> 'any'.

This case almost sounds like a case of dialect borrowing during the
Middle English/Early Scots period. Scots "ane" [e(:)n] reflects the
regular expected reflex of OE "án" /A:n/, as Early Scots /a:/ (from
LOE /{:/ and /A:/) became Early Middle Scots /E:/ and Late Middle and
New Scots /e/. On the other hand "ony"/"onie" [o(:)ne] seems to
reflect the (southern) Middle English /o:n/ from Old English "án"
/A:n/ being borrowed into Scots prior to the breaking of initial /O:/
into /wO/, later /wU/ and in southern dialects then /wV/; said
breaking happened in some (southern) Middle English dialects and
spread to many (but not all) Early New English and New English
dialects for just the words "one" and "once" (but incidentally not
"only", which still reflects initial LME /O:/).

----------

From: Travis Bemann <tabemann at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.07.14 (02) [E]

Minor correction - Early Scots seems to have /E:/ from OE /{:/, like
southern Late Middle English; this was a mistake on my part above.
This still does not adequately explain the pronunciation of Scots
"ony"/"onie", which is actually also matched by Scots "monie" (which
seems to imply that such may have been some other regular sound change
within Scots that I am not aware of the details of).

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Thanks a lot, Travis.

Note also Scots dialect variation:

one: *ane* [e(ː)n], *yin* [jɪn] ~ [jen], *wan* [wan]
only: *anly* [ˈe(ː)nlɪ] ~ [ˈe(ː)nle], *anerly* [ˈe(ː)nərlɪ] ~ [ˈe(ː)nərle]
any: *ony* [ˈonɪ] ~ [ˈone], *onie* [ˈoni]
many: *mony* [ˈmonɪ] ~ [ˈmone] ~ [ˈmʌnɪ] ~ [ˈmʌne], *monie* [ˈmoni]

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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