At 3:26:46 PM on Monday, November 1, 2010, dgkilday57 wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
> <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57"
>> <dgkilday57@> wrote:
>>> I would have to be a phonological hippie to buy into the
>>> notion of "optional soundlaws". No rocket science is
>>> required to see that any word in any language could be
>>> derived from any word in the same or any other language,
>>> merely by tailoring the "optional soundlaws" to achieve
>>> the desired result. Philology would collapse into
>>> anarchy.
>> While acknowledging an optional sound law is an admission
>> of defeat, and any explanation that depends on one is
>> thereby weakened, they do appear to be real. Good
>> examples of optional sound laws include:
>> 1) The Modern English 3-way split of the reflex of OE o:,
>> e.g. Modern English _blood_, _good_ and _mood_.
> This trifurcation in reflexes of OE -o:d can be explained
> through back-formations and analogical processes without
> recourse to hippie phonology. MnE <good>, <hood>, <stood>
> have the regular nuclear reflex of the OE monosyllables.
> The nucleus of MnE <blood> and <flood> evidently reflects
> extraction from dissyllabic compounds inherited from OE.
> Note OE <Bo:cland>, MnE <Buckland>; OE *bo:cmaest, ME
> <bukmast>, MnE <buckmast>. Early ME <blodles> 1225,
> <blodwurt> 1250 unfortunately do not show what the vowel
> was doing, but they do render it plausible that
> <bloodless> and <bloodwort> show the REGULAR pronunciation
> of inherited compounds. With <flood>, possibly extraction
> occurred from <floodgate> (or its ME equivalent, since we
> have <flud> c1425), but I can find no old attestations of
> the compound.
From the MED s.n. <flo:d-ya:te>:
(a) One of the movable barriers controlling the flow of
water in a millrace, a floodgate; a similar barrier in a
navigable stream; also fig.; (b) in personal names.
(a) c1230(?a1200) *Ancr.(Corp-C 402) 18b: Hwen 3e nede
moten [speak], a lute wiht lowsið up ower muðes
flod3eten, as me deð ed mulne, & leoteð adun sone.
(a1240) Deed Norris in LCRS 93 98: [Grantee will
build] flodiates.
(1330) RParl. 2.33a: Le curs de l'ewe de Wytham est..per
Estanks, Gorcez, et Flodeyates.
(1334-5) Acc.R.Dur.in Sur.Soc.100 525: In 2 flodyates de
novo factis..3s. 9d.
(1376) in Löfvenberg Contrib.Lex. 87: [The said mill and
the] flodegates.
(1403) in Löfvenberg Contrib.Lex. 87: Flodegates [of the
ancient] cornemelne.
(1423) Acc.Hollingbourne in Archaeol.Cant.13 562: Item,
to a laborer for castyng off the mylpond a bowte the
flodgate.
a1425(c1395) WBible(2) (Roy 1.C.8) Job 36.27:
Which..schedith out reynes at the licnesse of flood3ates
[L gurgitum; WB(1): swolewis].
(1440) PParv.(Hrl 221) 167: Flodegate [Win: ffludgate]
of a mylle: Sinoglocitorium.
c1450(?a1400) Wars Alex.(Ashm 44) 1856: Þan fondis furth
dame Fortoun to þe flode3atis, Dra3es vp þe damme-borde
& drenchis vs euire.
c1450 Treat.Fish.(Yale 171) 19: Yn falles of watur and
weeres, flode gates, and mylle pittes.
(1471-2) Acc.R.Dur.in Sur.Soc.99 93: Operanti super unum
Flotyate in le Westorcherd.
(1472-5) RParl. 6.159a: In lettyng of the passages of
Shippes..Milles, Milledammes, Mille pooles,
Lokkes..Hekkes, Flodeyates, and dyvers other
ympedymentes dayly been made.
?c1475 *Cath.Angl.(Add 15562) 49a: A ffluydgate [Monson:
Flude3ate]: Cinoglociatorium.
(b) (1262) Close R.Hen.III 116: Johannes Flodgat.
(1327) Sub.R.Som.in Som.RS 3 274: Walterus atte
Flodgate.
<
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED16373&egs=all&egdisplay=open>
> With <rood>, we have a weak noun in OFris, OS, ON, and
> early ME (<rode> 1225, pl. <roden> c1290), so the vocalism
> is just as regular as it is in <food> (OE <fo:da>, ME
> <uode>, <fode>).
We also find later ME instances of both words that suggest
short vowels (e.g., <fudde>).
> With <mood>, very likely we have back-formation from
> <moody> (OE <mo:dig>, ME <modi> c1205).
OE <mo:d> remained in continuous use, so it can't be a true
back-formation; at most the adjective might have influenced
the pronunciation.
What about /ho:p/ 'hoop', attested at least by the early
12th century? OE <flo:c>, ME /flo:k/ 'fluke'? OE <co:l>
'cool', <po:l> 'pool', and <to:l> 'tool'? OE <go:s>
'goose'? I suppose that for 'hoop', 'pool', and <spo:n>
'spoon' you could argue for influence from the labial.
Brian