English Young (was: Indo-Iranian Vowel Collapse)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Rob" <magwich78@...> wrote:

> > The delabialisation of *gW in pre-Germanic is at least half-regular
> > before *o other than the thematic vowel, so *kalb-a- is not
> > deviant. The delabialised *k was generalised, infecting stems like
> > *kilb-iz- < *gWelbH-es-; on the other hand, the vocalism of *kalb-a-
> > is found in the mixed -es-stem *kalb-iz- (OE cealf, pl. cealfru).
>
> A couple off-topic things:
> 1. Why is the Modern English word 'calf' and not *chealf (pl.
> *chealver)?

a) The singular derives from *kalba-m or *kalba-z - both neuter and
masculine thematic plurals are know from Old English.

b) Breaking after 'c' is West Saxon, and breaking before 'l' is
non-Anglian.

c) The Norman conquest enabled the Anglian East Midlands dialect to
become dominant.

The broken form survives to this day in the placenames _Chawleigh_,
_Chawton_, _Chalvey_ and _Chelvey_, and Kentich _chawlfe_ for 'calf'
is attested in the 16th century.

> 2. Is Modern English 'child, children' an es-stem (*kild-iz-, pl.
> *kild-iz-o:) as well?

Well, Old English _cild_ had plurals _cildru_, _cild_ and _cildas_, in
order of decreasing frequency, though according to Onions the original
nominative plural was simply _cild_. It looks as though *kild-iz-
never existed, but I wouldn't say the word wasn't (isn't?) an es-stem.

Richard.