[Ads-l] "Downsight"

[Herb Stahlke]

And that is in the nature of lenes in English before a voiceless state.
But a devoiced lenis does not a voiceless fortis make.  The problem is that
in the -ese suffix, and apparently only in the -ese suffix, for some
speakers, the lenis becomes fortis, as is shown by the shortened vowel
before it.  OE intervocalic voicing of fricatives is gone except for some
morphophonemic traces, but this fortition is a different process.  The
final devoicing of a lenis doesn't normally condition vowel shortening.

Herb

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 12:30 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Downsight"
>
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>
> Offhand, polyphonetic spelling is conducive fluctuation.
> The old [f ~ v, th ~ dh, s ~ z] morphology gets leveled out. Would
> expect [b > p, d > t, g > k, etc.] only in absolute word-final
> position.
> HS: <<I don't hear "fleece" for "fleas" or /kars/ for /ka:rz/.>>
> WB:  "My dog has fleas / fleece." (A sheep dog?)
> Intuition vs. Phx 101 larnin'.  I feel a difference.
> Also sprach Ohala:  fleas:  the /z/ has voiced onset,
> but is partially devoiced (divorced?) by AWFP silence.
> So, where's the beef?
>
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