LL-L: "Place names" LOWLANDS-L, 24.APR.2001 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Place names"

> From: Pat Reynolds [pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk]
> Subject: LL-L: "Place names" LOWLANDS-L, 22.APR.2001 (02) [E]
>
> I think I cut too much from the message I initially replied to, which
> suggested that the 'q' might have been a 'w' - this struck me as
> possible from the very shallow basis of my memories of Dumbar (a
> Scottish poet of the late 1400s, who has forms like 'qhuilk' (which) and
> 'quhom' (whom).
>
> Of course, I don't know how long after Dunbar _w_ could be rendered 'qu'

/w/ has never been rendered /qu/. Rather, in Scots, the grapheme /quh/ was
used for the sound which we now render /wh/.

In modern Scots /wh/ is pronounced [W] (ie unvoiced, as opposed to /w/ which
is pronounced [w] ie voiced).

However, as noted in the SND, when a word with /wh/ is said emphatically in
modern Scots, the sound is pronounced [xW], eg "What?" being pronounced
[xWQ?]. Whether this is a vestigial remnant of an earlier pronunciation, I
don't know. It might just be that the Middle Scots writers, not having
knowledge of modern linguistics with its descriptions of voicings, may have
considered the emphatic forms in attempting to derive an orthography, and
settled on /quh/ as a rendition of the sound that we now prefer to write as
a phonological relative of [w].

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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