posh

[Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM]

Aaron E. Drews <aaron at LING.ED.AC.UK> writes:

>>>>>
"...L vocalisation...may extend to word-final prevocalic environments, _#V
(_fall off_).  Beaken (1971) even found children vocalising /l/ before a
word-internal morpheme boundary plus vowel, as ['foUIn] _falling_; but
this has not yet been observed in adult speech, where internal linking /l/
remains..." Well 1982: 313, _Accents of English_, vol II, the British
Isles.

But
"The environment in which vocalisation has been attested [includes]
word-final intervocalic (e.g. _legal info_ [ligGwWInf&G] [ascii can't even
come close to this IPA, sorry]).  Vocalisation in thie context was found
only in the speech of the younger group.  By contrast, Wells (1982: 321)
suggests this is not a possible environment for vocalisation in London
English.  In all systems, vocalisation is blocked in word-initial
contexts, and word-internal intervocalic contexts, regardless of
morphology (e.g. _pullover_, _shallow_, _Eleanor_).  Tollfree, L.  1999.
South East London English: discrete versus continuous modelling of
consonantal reduction.  In Foulkes, P & G. Docherty (eds) _Urban Voices:
Accent Studies in the British Isles_.  London: Arnold.

It looks like the authorities of Cockney would dispute "posh" coming from
"polish", at least directly.  I personally find it more feasible that
"port outward" etc.  "posh" still might have it's birth in Cockney rhyming
slang.  I'll ask around, but there aren't many Cockney specialists here.
<<<<<

     [and as a PS in separate post:]

>>>>>
I forgot to mention that the data in both Wells and Tollfree seem a bit
old, dating from at least the 70s.  Things may have changed in 30 years.

Maybe Barry can stop off in London on his way back from Lisbon and take
lots of taxis and listen to the cabbies. :-)
<<<<<

Maybe things have changed in 30 years, but the older data indicate more
restrictive environments, rather than less. It doesn't look good for this
etymology.

And as for the acronym... damn, I thought we had buried that a long time ago.


-- Mark A. Mandel