Yags and other onomastic peculiarities

[Dr S. Watts]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
--On Mon, Feb 5, 2001 9:59 am +0000 Richard Coates
<richardc at cogs.susx.ac.uk> wrote:

> It seems to be in competition with a much rarer tendency to replace the
> /r/ with /l/, as in:
>
> Terence > Tel (unless restricted to football managers - I've heard Tez
> too) Derek > Del

Rarer in contemporary English, but commoner historically:
Henry - Harry - Hal
Mary - Molly - Moll (and Polly - Poll)
Dorothy - Dolly - Doll
Sarah - Sally - Sal.

Presumably the clip yielding a final -r is unsatisfactory for speakers of
non-rhotic varieties of English. But why or when the change from
predominantly -l to predominantly -z/-s, I don't know.

Sheila Watts
___________________________________________________
Dr Sheila Watts
University Lecturer in German
G06 Kennedy Building
Newnham College
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