From: Andrew Jarrette
Message: 41238
Date: 2005-10-10
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
wrote:
>
> I wonder also whether "steg" meaning "steak" has a different
pronunciation than "eg", even though they both go back to Old Danish
e:k and ste:k, because "steg" is also the spelling of the word
for "step", and the one spelling came to have only one pronunciation
rather than two (the pronunciation of the one with -g in Old Danish
instead of the one with -k, being chosen). I must confess I am
assuming that Lars is correct about the meaning "step", and I am
assuming the forms e:k and ste:k for Old Danish -- were they eik and
steik or something similar?
> Similarly, "boeg" (I can't yet get the foreign characters) comes
from *bo:kiz while "loeg" comes from *laukam, do they not? Any
chance that that could be the reason for the divergent
pronunciations?
>
First an auto-correction: there is no noun "steg" in Danish ("trin"
is "a step upwards", "skridt" a "step horizontally"). There is the
preterite of "stige", "steg", which I suspect is homophonical
to "steak".-- I got the idea from you:
"> Also note
> 'bøg' /bø?G/ "beech", 'løg' /loI?/ "onion"
> 'eg' /e?G/ "oak", 'steg' /staI?/ "steak"
>
Are 'steak' and 'step' homophones? Or is the latter just represented
by the word 'trin'? (Sorry I've no Swedish-Danish wordlist handy at
this moment).
Pfooih! I'm glad not to be descriptive linguist of Danish!
The Copenhagen dialect is said to be in a rapid development
unprecedented only by Langue d'ouïl in 13th century.
I've heard there are very distinct differences between parents,
children and grandchildren.
Lars"
-- I thought you were implying that "steg" could also mean "step" -- ?? I take it you are auto-correcting yourself as well as me?
Secondly, I doubt that we can go very far back in searching for
differences of pronunciation in Danish homographs. We have my
dialect, Scanian, which was cut off from the state of Denmark in
1658. Both "eg" and "steg" in this dialect are homophones.
The same should be valid for "bög" and "lög" (there are some
complications in the use of the first word due to Swedish ínfluence).
In Swedish however the result for this pair of words is different:
"bok" and "lök".
For the other pair the Swedish correspondencies are: "ek" and "stek".
But, as said, some inner-Danish synergies of dia- and sociolects
must have been at work since 1658.
Lars
-- Pardon me for asking, but are you Swedish or Danish? I'm a bit confused. I would now like to learn more about Danish, from the many things you and others have written about it.
Andrew