Re: [tied] change

On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 18:31:23 +0200, alex <alxmoeller@...> wrote:

>hei, that is indeed nice:-).I suppose the explanation for "m" > "n" is
>that "mz^-" group is indeed hard to pronounce, thus after the /mbj/ >
>/mz^/, then /mz^/ > /nz^/ which is indeed, pronounceable.

Whether it's written <m> or <n> in French is not important: the
pronunciation has nasal /a~/.

>In
>English the word "*chamge" it should have been a problem,indeed since in
>English the word is a monosyllabic.

English borrowed the word from French when it already had a nasal vowel.
The ME spelling varies between <change> and <chaunge>, with /a(u)n/ < /a~/.
The word wasn't monosyllabic then, as it later came to be, both in modern
French and English. [OFr. <change> /c^a~3^&/ (> ModFr. /s^a~z^/) => ME.
<chaunge> /c^aun3^&/ or <change> /c^an3^&/ > ModE. /c^eIn3^/].

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...