Robin wrote:
>The Two Lost Letters are the thorn and the wynn (terrible twins, as they
were identically pronounced [at least in the Real World -- dunno how the
hell
this plays in the land of the glaciers]. Then there's the yogh, which
afterlifes as zed, or if you're being particulate, 3.<
Ah, yes, I remember now, and thanks for reminding me of yogh, that was like
meeting a long lost friend. But can one be sure of the absolute identity of
pronunciation? There are slightly different ways of enunciating the sound.
I've always liked the mysteries of the initial Anglo-Saxon 'ge', i.e when is
it hard and when soft as in a kind 'y-fallen' verb and I love too the Scots
use of 'qu' for 'w'.
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
A Chide's Alphabet
Painting Without Numbers
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 12:55 PM
Subject: Re: poetry
"
Refresh my memory, Rob or Arni, but as well as 'thorn' did we not once have
a little friend called 'wynn'?
"
The slashed thorn is the medial -- wynn is Arni's initial bollocksed p.
(Sorry, i can only ever do anything outside the 256 ascii set if i cut and
paste.)
The Two Lost Letters are the thorn and the wynn (terrible twins, as they
were identically pronouned [at least in the Real World -- dunno how the hell
this plays in the land of the glaciers]. Then there's the yogh, which
afterlifes as zed, or if you're being particulate, 3.
But look, Arni is the expert on this -- he lives in the shadow of the smoke
from Snaefels Junkel. I'm a mere illiterate Denniston kid who mashed his
left knee tobogganing down the hill behind the Palais on a copy of the Beano
annual perched on a single roller-skate.
Problem with that was there were no brakes, and if you were touching fifty
when you encountered a three-foot-high brick wall ... Unfunny.
Robin
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