LL-L 'Phonology 2006.09.29 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 29 September 2006 * Volume 02
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From: 'Frank' [frank.verhoft at skynet.be]
Subject: LL-L 'Etymology'

Hi all,

I would be a bit surprised if this topic hasn't been dealt with yet, but I
searched the archives and couldn't find anything. My apologies if I searched
in a bad way.

My query concerns the silent k in English words as knee and knight. I have
been trying to sort a few things out, and this is what I have found so far:
Most, if not all sources place the loss of k in the word initial cluster kn-
in the Early Modern English period, roughly between 1500 and 1650/1700. So
far so good.

Nevertheless, I wonder if it would be possible to narrow down the period in
which k- got lost. I am aware that such a process could have taken decades
or even centuries, but what I have found so far isn't very satisfactory.

In my (rather modest) search, I found some contradictory data:

1.
- OED: In English, the k is now silent, alike in educated speech and in
most of the dialects; but it was pronounced apparently till about middle of
the 17th c. In the later 17th and early 18th c., writers on pronunciation
give the value of the combination as = hn, tn, dn or simple n.
- Otto Jespersen's A Modern English Grammar On Historical Principles. (Part
1: sounds and spellings) (1909) quite firmly states that the loss of k
before n "began late in the 17th century". He also mentions a dictionary of
1679 which gives as homonyms knave / nave, knight / night, knead / need.

I wouldn't dare to question a linguist as Jespersen, yet I wonder why a
source, a dictionary of 1679 is taken as the _starting date_ of such a
phenomenon. I would rather think that the 1679 source indicates that by then
the loss was widely accepted, at least for those words, not that it just had
begun in those years.

2.
Also the website of Random House (Word of the day)
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl\?date=19980514 clearly states
that "English dropped the k- sound relatively recently--the change seems to
have taken place in educated English during the seventeenth century, meaning
that Shakespeare would have pronounced the k- in these words."

This is contradicted by the following comments on some lines from a sonnet
by Shakespeare
(http://www.utm.edu/staff/ngraves/shakespeare/set_II_texts_comments/Set%20II_17.html):

Knowing thy Will, / Give not a windy night a rainy morrow.

The comments on these lines mention: "night puns on knight"

If it IS a pun as the author of the comments claims, then I would think that
Shakespeare could only have made this joke if it was widely enough known
among the audience, hence, if the disappearing of k- already had started
before.

3. While looking around, I came across Sir John Cheke, one of the scholars
of the mid 16th century who was very concerned about spelling. Cheke is said
to have been one of the people who, among other things, wanted to get rid of
"various silent letters" in writing. Alas, nowhere I can find which "various
silent letters" exactly. Is somebody here familiar with Cheke's texts (e.g.
"Our tongue clear and pure", 1561) and his (very partial) translation of the
Bible? I cannot find either text.
Is there any kind of indication about the status k in kn- to be found in
Cheke's writings (or any other contemporary author)?

I am eagerly waiting for comments, corrections, additions, etc. :-)

Groetjes,

Frank [Verhoft]




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