Re: [tied] A series of questions for the forum

From: tgpedersen
Message: 39143
Date: 2005-07-09

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:
> At 7:54:43 on Friday, 8 July 2005, Carl Hult wrote:
>
> > When studying ancient texts, have any of you or your
> > predecessors taken into account the following:
>
> > 1) Speech is changed by influence from the upper classes,
> > such as speech impediments which has been proven to change
> > the way folks speak. The "thick" R, the tongue root-R as
> > we call it in swedish, is such an evolution which
> > originated in a speech problem.
>
> I don't believe that there is any evidence for this. See
> the Linguist List discussion at
> <http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/11/11-2186.html>.
>
> > 2) They may have spelled a certain word wrong.
>
> It's not very meaningful to talk about spelling a word wrong
> unless the written culture in question has the notion of
> standardized spelling. Until very recently most did not; a
> person might spell the same word in different ways in the
> same document without anyone considering it an error.
>

In all apical-r using communities, there are some using dorsal /r/.
I've advocated earlier on this list that the shift from apical to
dorsal /r/ may have been caused by widespread subliminal heavy metal
poisoning (lead or mercury), among the first symptoms of which is
reduced control of the tip of extremities, including the tongue.


Torsten