Re: Don't axe... was: Axing a Kentish woman for meat

--- In cybalist@..., "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...> wrote:

> Piotr:
> >The verb <ascian> had the variant <axian> already in Old English,

and >"ax"

> >for "ask" is still quite widespread in English dialects. There >is

evidence

> >that it was considered the regular pronunciation by >17th-century
> >orthoepists.
>
> If I may interject and unabashedly derail this topic, a good

Guyanese friend

> of mine still pronounces it "axe". Of course, this guy is a hotbed

of other

> nifty and/or archaic speech patterns. He also tends to combine

words in the

> strangest way like "to change up" instead of just "to change", or

funny

> sayings like "keepin' so mucha noise" which would be translated

into my

> dialect as "makin' a whole buncha racket". Oh, I almost forgot the

cutest

> thing of all. He says "I have a nozzy feelin'" instead of

saying "I'm

> nauseous", "I'm so in a mood to blow chunks" or "My stomach is

painting your

> portrait. Wanna see?". I love it!
>
> He told a story once that when he first came to Canada, he was with

his

> cousin and there was a thick fog outside. So, naturally, he said

without

> thinking, "Hey, cozin. It's all faggy outside." He eventually

learned not to

> say that again. Of course, how would he know? A fag is a cigarette

and in

> Guyana homosexuals are known as "anti-men" (I guess they don't get

too many

> butch ones like me, go figure :)
>
> And I never knew there were orthopedists in the 17th-century. Cool.

You

> learn something knew every day.
>
> - gLeN
>
>

Which reminds of a stay in Holland some years ago where I heard a rap
record with some Surinams artist, who pronounced <verwacht> with a
Dutch /v/ but an English /w/! I asked a Dutchman if this was some old
Dutch dialect but his answer had to do with the size of people's lips
etc blabla, and in general no one's given me a good answer. Seems to
me the present Dutch "v-system" f, v (voiced f), w (v) is much too
cramped to be original. A system f/v + English /w/ would seem much
more natural. /w/->/v/ could have been caused by French and German
influence?

Torsten