Re: Optional Soundlaws (was: IE *aidh- > *aus-tr- 'hot, warm (wind)'

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, johnvertical@... wrote:

>>>>> Is this English 3-way development of OE *o: before /d/
>>>>> possibly due to the preceding consonant?

>>>>> I.e. after a labial it becomes /u:/ (<mood>, <food>),
>>>>> after /l/ it becomes /V/ (<blood>, <flood>), and after
>>>>> other consonants before /d/ it becomes /U/ (<good>,
>>>>> <hood>)?

>>>> <Rood> has /u:/. So has <brood>.

>>> Oh right. Ah well.

>> That might not be a killer argument. Initial /r/ and /wr/ merged
>> as [rW].

Evidence?

I don't know whether initial /br/ would have been [brW].

No particular reason for it to have been.

> Better counterexample: "wood" /wUd/.

I omitted it because its vowel is from OE /u/, not /o:/. But it's
true that after open syllable lengthening it had ME /o:/, so it
should qualify.

> Also, "snood" /snu:d/ (but that's a reasonably rare word and
> might well not be directly inherited in all dialects).

I know many people who use it in the Society for Creative
Anachronism, but for all of them it's a learned word, either from
reading or from others who use it, so I'd not count it.

Brian