Re: English Young (was: Indo-Iranian Vowel Collapse)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:

>
> At 4:49:12 PM on Thursday, November 24, 2005, Rob wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
> > <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>
> >>> 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.
>
> > What do you mean by "breaking"?
>
> Here it's the diphthongization of earlier /æ/ to /æa/.

I see. If /æa/ was indeed the phonetic value of <ea>, that is. I
think it may rather have been /E/.

- Rob