LL-L "Etymology" 2006.02.26 (02) [E]

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   L O W L A N D S - L * 26 February 2006 * Volume 02
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From: Isaac M. Davis <isaacmacdonalddavis at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2006.02.26 (01) [E]

Ron Hahn wrote:

> According to the _Oxford English Dictionary_, "divers" (now with main 
> stress on the first syllable, earlier on the second)
> comes from Old French _divers_ ~ _diviers_ (feminine _diverse_ ~ 
> _divierse_), related to Latin _divers-_ (_diversus_ etc.),
> originally "turned different ways," then 'unlike', 'different', 
> 'separate', 'contrary'.

Odd, that. In my dialect it's always stressed on the second syllable. Is it 
an RP/other British dialects thing to stress it on the first? Sounds very 
strange to my ear.

> Note also that Scots has derived _hwite_, _white_, _quhyte_ and _fite_ 
> from Old English _þwítan_.  (So there's the old
> _þw-_ ~ _kw-_ thing again.)

Are you sure of that? IIRC, <quh> is just an old orthographic convention for 
what is now generally (praps under English influence, praps not) spelt <wh>. 
No _kw_ whatever. Then again, I could be wrong, my experience with Scots is 
primarily with recent texts.

Fair faw,

Isaac M. Davis

Westron wynd, when wilt thou blow
The smalle rain down can rain
Christ yf my love were in my arms
And I yn my bed again

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Hi, Isaac!

> Odd, that. In my dialect it's always stressed on the second syllable. Is 
> it an
> RP/other British dialects thing to stress it on the first? Sounds very 
> strange
> to my ear.

To me, too.  Did I misread it?

> Are you sure of that? IIRC, <quh> is just an old orthographic convention 
> for
> what is now generally (praps under English influence, praps not) spelt 
> <wh>.
> No _kw_ whatever. Then again, I could be wrong, my experience with Scots
> is primarily with recent texts.

Nope.  I'm not sure, and I don't know if anyone can be.  I do know that what 
is spelled <quh-> in Old/Middle Scots came to be spelled <hw-> and <wh-> in 
the 18th century, and it is assumed that by that time the pronunciation [xW] 
was established, later to develop in ordinary speech to [W] (the voiceless 
version of [w]), and to [f] in areas such as Aberdeen (still [xW] in 
emphatic speech in many modern dialects).  Since Old English used the 
spelling <hw->, I wonder why Old/Middle Scots would have chosen <quh-> if 
the sequence did not begin with a stop, given also familiarity with the 
pronunciation of Latin <qu-> at the time.  I therefore suspect that <quh-> 
used to represent something like *[k(x)W] or *[q(X)W], the <h> signalling 
either an intervening fricative (i.e., an affricate) or voicelessness of the 
/w/.

However, even if I'm wrong, this still leaves us with variation between 
/þw-/ (> /dw-/) and /xw-/ in the said case.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron 

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