[Ads-l] Q: M silent in MN?

[Laurence Horn]

Yes, I'm assuming it's underlying /'gzailofon/ or /'ksailofon/ or something like it, and the first consonant, the /g/ or /k/, is deleted, like the /m/ in "mnemonic" or /p/ in "psychology".

LH


On Jan 2, 2015, at 11:07 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:

> Xylophone?
> On Jan 2, 2015 11:01 PM, "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Q:  M silent in MN?
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> I just now "Mnemosyne", and that's really a name, so it doesn't count, =
>> at least in Scrabble.  ("Mnemonic" also has the nice feature of =
>> containing different grades of the same PIE etymon in the first two =
>> syllables, so it's a good mnemonic for remembering "men-".)
>> 
>> Is there some sort of principle that dictates that we always pronounce =
>> the second consonant of those phonotactic-violating initial clusters, =
>> especially the ones from Greek  (psychology, pneumonia, xylophone, =
>> gnostic,=85)?  Is this discussed somewhere?   =20
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>> On Jan 2, 2015, at 10:07 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> 
>>> Thanks (and there are 19 other words beginning "mnem", none of which I =
>> am familiar with).  My morbid mind ran rather to words like "condemn".
>>> =20
>>> Joel
>>> =20
>>> =20
>>> At 1/2/2015 09:54 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>> Well, we'd need a "mnemonic" for that.
>>>> =20
>>>> LH
>>>> =20
>>>> On Jan 2, 2015, at 9:33 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>> =20
>>>>> Are there words containing "mn" for which the "m" is silent, so the =
>> result is "n"?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Joel
>>>>> 
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - =
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=3Dhttp://www.americandialect.or=
>> g/&k=3DdpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=3DMW6Q85EuQFDFs0kj9ASwdaXohusE8=
>> 33r9bFEf66m5kA%3D%0A&m=3DgRGrTTg2dTadex1%2BWWSzRa6Hk3%2Bqo8sawHHqKjrTtRI%3=
>> D%0A&s=3D931e3d41c55df29616a76a9d680df839d70e3fc4f68050c3bc10d25b5788d755
>>>> =20
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - =
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=3Dhttp://www.americandialect.or=
>> g/&k=3DdpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=3DMW6Q85EuQFDFs0kj9ASwdaXohusE8=
>> 33r9bFEf66m5kA%3D%0A&m=3Dr5JEMQdDpYlURAC3M1wa6vStz5iDF7mpmnKwYwgCEgU%3D%0A=
>> &s=3Dc8f5b6ffdb6a9e46ab844310ac20efc468f9c9ceb469ac71ecb6f9f8d32424d6
>>> =20
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - =
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=3Dhttp://www.americandialect.or=
>> g/&k=3DdpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=3DMW6Q85EuQFDFs0kj9ASwdaXohusE8=
>> 33r9bFEf66m5kA%3D%0A&m=3Dr5JEMQdDpYlURAC3M1wa6vStz5iDF7mpmnKwYwgCEgU%3D%0A=
>> &s=3Dc8f5b6ffdb6a9e46ab844310ac20efc468f9c9ceb469ac71ecb6f9f8d32424d6
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://www.americandialect.org/&k=dpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=MW6Q85EuQFDFs0kj9ASwdaXohusE833r9bFEf66m5kA%3D%0A&m=1ukSmQWPJZ0P7rMe%2F%2BiZaIJO8AFp7281ubj1OWhL3p0%3D%0A&s=f4515bbea2fa126757192faa2be663c9e8d56bf76ccbaca0a64622c2051c4056
>> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://www.americandialect.org/&k=dpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=MW6Q85EuQFDFs0kj9ASwdaXohusE833r9bFEf66m5kA%3D%0A&m=1ukSmQWPJZ0P7rMe%2F%2BiZaIJO8AFp7281ubj1OWhL3p0%3D%0A&s=f4515bbea2fa126757192faa2be663c9e8d56bf76ccbaca0a64622c2051c4056

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org