--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:
> At 7:00:29 AM on Thursday, July 15, 2004, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > *va- > *vo- > *o- is common in Danish. Besides (w)ooze, do
> > you know of other similar examples in English (esp. the
> > *wo- > *o- part)?
> Only in dialect. I don't know the geographical details, but
> Scots had <oo>, <oull> 'wool' in the 16th century.
Onions gives just five examples:
1. _ooze_ 'exudation, exude' < OE _wo:s_ 'juice, sap'.
2. _ooze_ 'mud, slime' < OE _wa:se_
3. _ood_ dialect form of _wood_
4. _ool_ dialect form of _wool_
5. _ooman_ dialect form of _woman_.
Would you allow _oo_, dialect form of 'who'? I suppose _two_ < OE
twa: doesn't count - sporadic loss of /w/ in environment C_O: has
been going for a long time - e.g. _c(w)o:m_ 'came' OE, _sword_, _so_
< OE _swa:_, occasional /kO:t/ for <quart>.
In the other direction, we have:
a. _woof_ 'threads crossing the web at right angles to the warp' <
ME _oof_ < OE _o:wef_, _o:webb_.
Richard.