Hypersimplied phonology of "Pun intended"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sat May 8 02:52:18 UTC 2010


Somewhere or other, probably *not* in Mario Pei, this time, I read
that The Great English Vowel-Shift is Jacob's-Ladder-ish. Vowels rise
as high as they can. Then they fall. In BE, the phenomenon sumpm like
dis:

p[E]ncil > p[I]ncil > p[&]ncil

b[E]nch > b[iI]nch > [b&i]nch

am[E]n > am[iI]n > am[&I]n

--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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