LL-L "Phonology" 2011.09.08 (01) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 08 September 2011 - Volume 01
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <roerd096 at PLANET.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2011.09.07 (02) [EN]


Hi Heather e.a.,

Well, I guess that in the case of German Ross (the animal) English horse
shows that it must be derived from something like *hros.
Maybe the answer lies in the colloquial pronunciation of Dutch: we write
"dorp", "kerk", "wurg" and "melk", "walg", "wolf" but we say "dorrup",
"kerrek", "wurrug" and "mellek", "wallug", "wolluf" etc. Virtually everyone
does that, not only in dialects or "sloppy" pronunciation.
>From that prono, one can easily imagine the second syllable gets the stress,
and eventually the originally stressed first syllable disappears. I mean,
something similar could have happend with in the past and then we've got our
methatesis.
Just my two eurocents...
Ingmar

from Heather Rendall  heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk

Marcus wrote: words with metathesis and without metathesis must have
existed even before the Angles and Saxons went to Britain (e.g. "-
thorp/-dorp" vs. "-throp/-drup" in placenames).”

Metathesis is very much part of English dialect too (still?) viz
Althorpe  The home of Earl Spencer - pronounced locally as Altrup.
This must have occurred (long?) after the A/S arrival.

Not saying that it wasn't going on before, but just that metathesis
seems to be part of the linguistic makeup of a swathe of Germanic
speakers : perhaps it has a genetic source that leads people to hear
sounds in reverse. I am still bowled over by  Ross >  Ors    visually
it looks acceptably logical but aurally - as it would have had to have
been in illiterate times - it is an amazing and seemingly inexplicable
step.

Heather
Worcester UK

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