From: "Roger Collett" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sorry to ramble on but:
Me too -- I think with this, I finally catch up on posts which accumulated
while I was asleep!!!
(I think the obvious answer of simply switching all this bachchannel is that
while this must be phenomenally boring to most of the list, there does seem
to be a [surprisingly] significant minority who are engaged with the issue.
Well, at least with a clear subject-line, it's easy to skip or delete if you
aren't interested in the thread. Just a thot.)
> Were there two distinct sounds?
When I raised the issue initially, it never occurred to me that there
weren't (2 distinct sounds). I still think this, but Doubts are beginning
to Creep In.
{There's also the problem of "distinct" vs. "distinctive" -- the beginnings
of "thee" and "thy" (have I already said this?) are distinct in modern
English, but not particularly distinctive to the *ear of a modern
English(es) speaker.}
> How do we know there were two distinct sounds? We only have the text!!!
Well, yeah -- there are caveats. But there are ways to infer how words were
pronounced. One of the useful things about sound-changes is that they are
incredibly consistent, which is why the reverse-engineering of pronunciation
is possible.
>> (b) Was there a period in Proto-Germanic (the ur-language which later
>> divided up into English, German, Norse, etc.) when there was a single
>> sound which later split into voiced and voiceless velar fricatives?
>
> Probably.
I think I'd agree.
>> (c) Hypothetically, does the composition, as opposed to the earliest
>> written text, of Beowulf, represent a period before this split?
>
> Not necessarily, as they could BOTH be before any split!
Yup. :-(((
And there's the further problem (which I think dave was the first to raise
elsewhere) that the current dating of the writing-down of Beowulf seems to
have been pushed forward from the 8th C to about 1010.
Oh dear -- elephgnats all the way down!!!
Robin
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