From: Patrick Ryan
Message: 42354
Date: 2005-12-01
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 4:26 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: English Young (was: Indo-Iranian Vowel Collapse)
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Rob" <magwich78@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
> wrote:
> > In any case, there's no real doubt that the OE diphthongs
> > were just that. Come to think of it, part of the evidence
> > is breaking itself: it's most easily explained as the
> > introduction of an epenthetic vowel between a front vowel
> > and a velar or velarized consonant (/lC/, /rC/, or /x/),
> > much as [mIlk] becomes [mIok] when the /l/ is sufficiently
> > velarized.
***
Patrick:
Brian, for whatever it may be worth, I have always though that _some_
diphthongs, at least, were probably the result of _premature_ onset of
voicing: the tongue is raised through the approximate position for [o]
before it reaches the position for [u]. Might that not explain some OE
diphthongs?
***