Pronunciation of "Sk"

[Francisc Czobor]

Hi Jason,
I think it was pronounced as written, that is [sk], at least at the 
time when Wulfila devised the Gothic alphabet (4th century), 
otherwise he would have invented a special letter for the "sh" sound.
But how this group is reflected in the Crimean Gothic of the 16th 
century, is not very clear to me. The sole Crimean Gothic word of the 
Busbecq's list corresponding to a Wulfilan word containing "sk" is 
_fisct_ "fish" (Wulfilan: fisks), probably a typo instead of *fisc or 
*fisch. Another word in Busbecq that would correspond to a word 
containig [sk] in Old Germanic and Wulfilan Gothic is _schieten_ "to 
shoot", corresponding to a unattested Wulfilan *skiutan (only its 
derivative is attested, the dat. sg. form _skauta_ 
meaning "protrusion, projection"). The "sch" of Busbecq could be the 
Dutch "sch" (pronounced [s-x], where [x] is a guttural fricative 
sound like the "ch" in German "ach" or Scottish "loch") or the 
German "sch" (pronounced like English "sh"). For the latter reading 
speaks the fact that the "sch" group appears also where in Wulfilan 
we have a "s" (initial before consonant, like in German), which in 
this case could be read only as English "sh":
schuuester "sister" (Wulfilan: swistar)
schlipen "to sleep" (Wulfilan: slepan)
schuualth "death" (Wulfilan: swulta-)
schuos, typo for *schnos "daughter-in-law" (for Germanic *snuzo)
Thus most probably Busbecq's "sch" should be read like German "sch" 
or English "sh".
The shift [sk] > [sh] in schieten is explainable through 
palatalization before [i].
But what about _fisct_ "fish"? This is obviously a typo.
If the correct form is "fisc" (as Streitberg believes in 
his "Gotisches Elementarbuch"), then the Gothic [sk] group was 
preserved in non-palatalizing position until the 16th century.
But if the correct form is "fisch", than most probably all Old Gothic 
[sk] has later evolved to English "sh". Who knows?

Francisc


--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Jason Polchinski" <jpolchin at ...> 
wrote:
>
> 
> 
> 
> How is the "sk" as in skalks or fisks pronounced? As written or 
as "sh" in 
> English?
> 
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