<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 12 June 2008 - Volume 02<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: Phonology</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Dear Lowlanders,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">(My friend Jake, whom I address with Jakes, had better not find out about this one, based on what I found out a few days ago.)</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">My basic question is if and where the word "jakes" for 'privy', 'toilet', is still in use in English.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The etymology of this word is uncertain but is generally believed to go back to the French name Jacques (Jacob). I suppose it arose from some type of jargon, just as "john" did in American English and </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Tante Meier</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> ("Auntie Meier") in Northern Germany's Missingsch varieties (later adopted by casual Northern German). Maybe these developed from taboo replacements like this: "Where are you going?" "To visit Jacques/John/Auntie Meier" (as in American English "to see a man about a horse").</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">"Jakes" (looking like a plural form but treated as a singular form, hence strengthening the "Jacques" hypothesis) was apparently much in use in Early Modern English. In fact, it and its occasional alternative spelling "jacks" are involved in one of the various clues we get about pronunciation of Southern English during 16th century. As a matter of word play, an alternative to "jakes" was "ajax" during the Elizabethan era. From poetic meter we can tell that the name Ajax (then usually spelled "Aiax") was not pronounced [ˈʔɛɪʤæks] or [ˈʔɛɪʤɛks] as it is today but had main stress on the final syllable: something like *[ʔaˈʤæːks]. This then sounded like "a jakes". <br>
<br></span><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">"Your Lion that holds his Pollax sitting on a close stoole, will be giuen to Aiax."<br></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> William Shakespeare, <i>Troilus & Cressida</i>, 1588<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">So the clue is that the /a/ in written "aCe" was pronounced [æː], as it is in some northern dialects of England (Northeastern, Lancashire?) I seem to be not the only one that believes that, despite occasional spelling confusion, the "a" in spelled "aCe" was pronounced longer than the "a" in spelled "aC" (as in "jake" vs. "jack"). This jives with the fact that only the longer vowel later turned into a diphthong, a rising diphthong ([ɛɪ]) in most dialects and an even ([ɛɜ̯]) falling ([ɛæ̯], [ɛa̯]) diphthong in some dialects such as Irish and West Indian ones. I hear slightly falling diphthongs in some "authentically" pronounced literary lines.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Hear some of Shakespeare's lines of reconstructed pronunciation: </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_shakespeare_20050719.ram" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_shakespeare_20050719.ram</a><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/media/mp3/reasons.html" target="_blank">http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/media/mp3/reasons.html</a><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/media/mp3/cassius.html" target="_blank">http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/media/mp3/cassius.html</a><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">So I believe the name Shakespeare was pronounced [ˈʃæːkspeːɹ] at the time (cf. modern [ˈʃɛɪksp</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ɪɹ</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">], [ˈʃɛɪkspiɝ], [ˈʃeɪksp</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ɪə</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">], [ˈʃæɪksp</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ɪə</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">], etc.).</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Many Canadian speakers have monophthong [eː] as an equivalent of the said sound (thus saying [ˈʃeːksp</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">ɪɹ</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">], I guess). On the US side, too, many speakers [eː] or [ɛː] in names like "Australia".<br>
<br>As you can tell, I'm fascinated by phonological/phonetic reconstruction. Any relevant information and idea (not only about English) would be welcome.<br><br>Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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