copacetic?

[Wilson Gray]

On Jan 20, 2005, at 7:27 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: copacetic?
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>
>>> "Copathetic" can be found just about as early as any spelling of
>>> "copasetic" AFAIK. Phonetically /T/ > /s/ is more likely than /s/ >
>>> /T/, I
>>> think.
>>
>> But is this a sound change that one could reasonably expect to occur
>> or
>> to have occurred in English, even if, e.g. Robert Johnson's "Stones In
>> My Passway" is accepted as derived from "... Pathway"?
>
> It doesn't occur very often, but I find it more likely than the
> opposite
> one, all else equal. And in this case I find it hard to believe that
> the
> two words are independent and unrelated.
>
> Of course one can also speculate that /s/ > /T/ occurred here under
> influence from "sympathetic", "apathetic", etc.
>
> All just speculation so far!
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>

Sigh!  Ain't it the stone truth? On the other hand, what would we do
for mental recreation, if we already knew everything?

-Wilson Gray