Re[4]: [tied] Re: Franco-Provençal

At 11:19:31 PM on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, Rick
McCallister wrote:

> --- On Wed, 2/18/09, Brian M. Scott <BMScott@...>
> wrote:

>> At 9:15:15 PM on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, Rick
>> McCallister wrote:

>> [...]

>>> No, I'd say English is a dialect of Scots --given that
>>> Scots is more conservative, much closer to Old English.

>> In what respect(s)?

> The vowels
> <a> did not change to /o/ e.g. hame vs. home

You mean OE /A:/. It did change, becoming /e:/ in Middle
Scots and /e/ in modern Scots. Early Scots /E:/ (deaf) and
/ai/ (day) followed the same trajectory. Another Scots
merger: early Scots /ai/, /ui/, and /i:/ have merged as /&i/
(bite, oil, May), except that /ai/ is usually preserved
before voiced fricatives and /r/, i.e., the long
environments of the Scottish Vowel Length Rule. The SVLR
itself is a notable innovation.

> /u/ did not change to /au/ e.g. house vs. /hus/

You mean OE /u:/; it didn't diphthongize, but it has been
shortened to /u/.

OE /o:/ has become Scots /ø/~/y/.

> preservation of /x/
> etc.

I know less about the consonants, but at least in some Scots
varieties OE /s/ tends to become /S/ adjacent to front
vowels, and OE /nd/ seems to be substantially more likely to
lose the /d/ than in standard English.

Brian