Etymology of 'force'

SpaceFlight   Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:42 pm GMT
Apparantly, the fork-pork split didn't occur there were no consonants afterwards or when the consonant occurred before a vowel, hence:

"for" /fOr/
"forty" /fOrti/
"portable" /pOrt@b=l/

All of which never shifted to /or/.

Perhaps the common word "formation" /fOrmeIS@n/ prevented "form" from shifted to /or/. Is that possible?
Lazar   Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:45 pm GMT
Yes; in traditional Worcesterese there's a very audible difference between "forty" ["fQ:4i] ("fotty") and stressed "for" ["fQ:] ("faw") on the one hand, and "four" ["fO@] on the other hand.
Josh Lalonde   Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:42 am GMT
Actually, according to dictionary.com, 'portable' does have /or/. I was thinking a little more about my theory of the low-class origin of the fork-pork split, and I realized that it won't work. 'Born' is /bOrn/ and contrasts with 'borne' /born/ in non horse-hoarse merging accents, but 'born' is an Anglo-Saxon word, and it doesn't seem likely that it would be an upper-class or literary word. So I still have no idea. I suspect Wells's Accents of English has something to say on the subject, but someone took out my school library's only copy for the whole semester, so I won't be able to check until the end of April.
greg   Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:17 am GMT
Il faudrait voir le couple /o:/—/O:/ (X-Sampa) = /oː/—/ɔː/ (API) en moyen-anglais (MA). Et surtout de quelle(s) voyelle(s) du vieil-anglais (VA) procède chacun des termes du couple.

VA <duru> /duru/
MA <dore> /do:r(@)/ — /doːr(ə)/
AM <door> /dO:/ — /dɔː/

VA <god> /go:d/ — /goːd/
MA <good> /go:d/ — /goːd/
AM <good> /gUd/ — /gʊd/

VA <ban> /ba:n/ — /baːn/
MA <bone> /bO:n(@)/ — /bɔːn(ə)/
AM <bone> /b@U_^n/ — /bəʊ̯n/

VA <nosu> /nosu/
MA <nose> /nO:(s)(z)(@)/ — /nɔː(s)(z)(ə)/
AM <bone> /n@U_^z/ — /nəʊ̯z/



Peut-être que ces schémas d'évolution ont influencé les mots français adoptés en moyen-anglais ?





Josh Lalonde : « Perhaps the /Or/ to /or/ shift (the fork-pork split?) was a lower-class thing. I suspect that in the 15th century, forks weren't used very often by the lower classes (I don't think they were even popular with the aristocracy). »

Il est probable que le mot MA <fork(e)> ait été utilisé par les couches populaires anglo-saxonnes dans la mesure où AM <fork> résulte d'un télescopage entre VA <forca> (de La <furca>) et AF <forque> <fourche> <forche> <furche> <fourque> <fourke><furke> <fourge> (etc).
Josh Lalonde   Sun Apr 01, 2007 6:33 pm GMT
/dZe o Es et_S El e El o En di i/
Josh Lalonde   Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:24 pm GMT
That last one wasn't me.