--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> I have colleagues from Trinidad with family who have French names.
Trinidad was once largely French-creole speaking but it's died out
according to my friends. Your name could be any of the above or a
misprism of something else. In West Virginia, where my parents were
from --Bayer somehow ended up as Bias and as Cyrus, Schaeffer as
Shavers, Diehl became Dial, Mc Carricker as Calico, etc.
(probably last word on the topic:) Yes, I know about the French Creole
background in Trinidad, and it's still evident from the vernacular
English spoken there, since there are a considerable number of
popular/slang words that are of (recent) French origin, and even the
word order and choice of locutions often seem to be direct
translations from French, according to my father (and I wonder whether
the intonation patterns don't owe something to French as well). I
don't know if anyone still speaks the Creole, but my mother remembers
her mother speaking Creole to the servants on their estate in the 1930's.
If Bayer can become Bias/Cyrus in West Virginia, then it is much more
conceivable that Jarrett(e) might come from Gerald/Gerard. But in the
Caribbean unlike the majority of North America, /E/ and /ae/ (or
really /a/ in the Caribbean) are kept completely distinct before /r/ -
so the putative confusion between "Gerard" and "Jarrett(e)" I would
think more likely would have to go back to England at some time (or
France if such confusion was possible in French at that time) -- is
the confusion between /E/ and /ae/ before /r/ relatively ancient in
English? (e.g. are <err> and <arr> often confused before the 1600's
when North America was colonized?)