I read this poem recently and wondered myself about the 'lh' spelling. My questions are: then did these voiceless sounds disappear in southwestern English/late West Saxon? And why/when did voiceless L die out in Cornish but not in Welsh?
True, but my understanding is that it’s under siege there too? I believe the speech of younger generations merges the two, from what I remember of NZ friends’ accents and scholarly summaries.
Not directly. 'Rhythm' (and possibly also 'rhyme') are RH words spelled that way to match their Greek origins. Ancient Greek had its own voiceless R-type sound, spelled with ῥ in the Greek alphabet, and English, following the Romans, spells this with RH.
"The musician may wonder how these rambunctious lyrics were performed;"
Some of us geeky musicians don't actually wonder this, we already know. Sumer Is Icumen In was performed as a round, like Row Your Boat, and the tune was preserved in notation. Just search for it in the yootoob if you want to hear it.
I read this poem recently and wondered myself about the 'lh' spelling. My questions are: then did these voiceless sounds disappear in southwestern English/late West Saxon? And why/when did voiceless L die out in Cornish but not in Welsh?
New to substack and love this! It tickles the part of my brain that enjoyed that one linguistics class back in college. Wish I'd taken more!
Hello and welcome!
We certainly distinguish between whine and wine where I come from:
Aotearoa/New Zealand
True, but my understanding is that it’s under siege there too? I believe the speech of younger generations merges the two, from what I remember of NZ friends’ accents and scholarly summaries.
Quite possibly- I grow old.
I’ll never not automatically read middle English in an Irish accent 🤷♀️ great article!
Are "rhyme" and "rhythm" related to this?
Not directly. 'Rhythm' (and possibly also 'rhyme') are RH words spelled that way to match their Greek origins. Ancient Greek had its own voiceless R-type sound, spelled with ῥ in the Greek alphabet, and English, following the Romans, spells this with RH.
As a linguist in training (university student), this article was fantastic!
This was so fun and interesting !
Thank you!! And hello! I don't know what I'm doing here on Substack, but it's nice to see a friendly medieval face :)
"The musician may wonder how these rambunctious lyrics were performed;"
Some of us geeky musicians don't actually wonder this, we already know. Sumer Is Icumen In was performed as a round, like Row Your Boat, and the tune was preserved in notation. Just search for it in the yootoob if you want to hear it.
We still have the archaic word, “halloo”; and “hello” also uses that “h” that was originally “hloud”.
Do you have a reference for the idea that 'hello’ is related to ‘loud’? That’s a theory I’ve not heard of before.