From: tgpedersen
Message: 40855
Date: 2005-09-29
>In short, can you rule out dialect mixture?
> ME [U] was unrounded to [V] starting in the 16th and 17th.
> cc. The change was generally blocked by an initial labial
> (b-, p-, f-, w-, early on also by m-), especially when
> followed by /l/ or /s^/ (sometimes also /m/, /t/, /d/).
> Examples would be: bull, bullet, pull, pulpit, Fulham, wolf,
> wool, bush, bushel, push, woman, pudding, wood, put,
> butcher. In "cushion", /s^/ alone seems to be responsible.
> "Cuckoo" is onomatopeic.
>
> But there are also examples where we have /V/ despite P..L
> (pulp, pulse, bulk, bulb [note that all the examples have
> -lC]) or P..T (but, butter, putt).
>