Date:  Wed, 1 Nov 1995 22:51:05 EST

From:  David Bergdahl <BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>

Subject: Re: Sulking Over Silky Milk & Other Words of That Ilk



From:  NAME: David Bergdahl

    FUNC: English

    TEL: (614) 593-2783          <BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]A1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LANCE>

To:   MX%"ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu"[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAX[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MRGATE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAX



Am I wrong to take exception to the inclusion of words like <talk> in the

discussion of the loss of /l/? Is my historical linguistics outdated or didn't

Elizabethan English fill the "slot" left by the raising of "long open o" to /o/

by converting {AL} and {AU/W} words like <talk>, <daughter>, <law>?



Margaret Schlauch. The English Language in Modern Times, p. 45: "au in Germanic

words, derived from a+w, remained a diphthong for a time, as in <law> and <saw>;

simplification occurred later to [long open o] by way of [open o diphthongized

to U]."



Thomas Pyles, Origins & Development, 2nd ed., p. 189: "The <l> of Middle English

preconsonantal <al> was lost after first becoming a vowel: thus Middle English

<al> and <au> fell together as <au>, ultimately becoming [long open o](as in

<talk>, <walk>) except befere <f>, <v>, and <m>, where it became [long low front

digraph] in such words as <half>, <salve>, and <psalm>."



So aren't we REALLY talking about the re-introduction of an /l/ from the

spelling analogous to disyllabic <forehead>? So what's all this talk about

loss? Loss inthe case in words like <folk> also occurred in the early modern

period in England. Is the claim that the "loss" of /l/ in <folklore> but not

<folk> not that it's easier to reintroduce an /l/ in a single syllable? Or is

the claim that southern speakers who "retain" /l/ have resisted a 400-hundred

year old sound change?



BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU

        David Bergdahl

            Ohio University/Athens

        "Where Appalachia meets the Midwest"--Anya Briggs