[tied] Re: Six, -ts- > -ks-

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 13:38:45 -0500, Jim Rader <jrader@...>
> wrote:
>
> >Actually, some northern and eastern dialects of Old French did

develop

> >[s^] from [ks]. Anglo-French and Middle English appropriated some

of

> >these forms--hence <cushion> in Mod. English as against French
> ><coussin>, <coissin>, from <*coxi:nus>, and doublets like <lease>

and

> ><leash>.
>
> I think that's not so much an evolution of Lat. -x- to /s^/, but a
> secondary evolution of /is/, /js/ > /s^/.
>
> Examples which have survived in English: finish < finisser (Latin -

sc-),

> anguish < angoisse (Latin -stj-), cushion < coissin (Lat -x-),

fashion <

> faisson (Lat -ktj-), cash < caisse (Lat. -ps-).
>

How would you explain the French spelling with <-x> in many
placenames, eg Caix, presumably once /-s^/?

Torsten