Re[2]: [tied] Re: Asian migration to Scandinavia

At 11:01:45 AM on Monday, September 15, 2008, Arnaud Fournet
wrote:

> From: "bmscotttg" <BMScott@...>

>> Olof von Feilitzen, in The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of
>> Domesday Book, says that '[b]efore _r_, especially _r_ +
>> consonant, _e_ and _a_ tend to interchange in OFr
>> generally', citing K. Dammeier, Die Vertauschung von _er_
>> und _ar_ im Wortschatz der heutigen französischen
>> Schriftsprache, Dissertation, Berlin, 1903.

[...]

> In any case, that point of view conflicts with some basic
> data :

> French chaise, chaire = English chair both with /e/
> French charge = English charge both with /a/
> French chercher = English search : French has /e/
> French marcher = English march : both with /a/

> I can see no neutralisation !?

I rather imagine that Dammeier looked at a large number of
OFr sources. Certainly von Feilitzen was intimately
familiar with Anglo-Norman sources. (By the way, AN sources
show frequent interchange of <a> and <e> even without a
following <r>.)

> What kind of Old French is this man discussing ?

Quite possibly the dialect continuum as a whole, if you mean
Dammeier: the full title of his dissertation is 'Die
Vertauschung von _er_ und _ar_ im Wortschatz der heutigen
französischen Schriftsprache nebst einer Berücksichtigung
ihrer Spuren in einigen französischen Mundarten'. Von
Feilitzen was mostly concerned with AN.

Brian