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II.—Warmpth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

C. H. Grandgent
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Extract

Among the many interesting phenomena of speech-life are the disappearance and the development of a p, b, t, d, k, or g between two consonants. The suppression of the stop seems to be usually due to a general tendency to simplify consonant groups, whenever such reduction facilitates utterance and does not interfere with intelligibility; thus Vulgar Latin compto becomes comto and then conto. The growth of a consonant between two others appears to be occasioned either by a lack of simultaneousness in the action of different organs, as in English Hampton from Hamton, or by an unconscious effort to bridge over a difficult transition, as in Old French estre from esre; sometimes, perhaps, as in Greek àνδρóς, it is brought about by a combination of these causes.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , 1896 , pp. 63 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1896

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References

page 63 note 1 The system of transcription I use is that of the American Dialect Society.

page 63 note 1 Quoted by Storm, Englische Philologie, second edition, p. 443.

page 63 note 1 In words like Hampshire, Hampstead, Sampson, Simpson, Thompson, where the p appeared early enough to be recognized in the regular spelling, any omission of this consonant must, I think, generally be considered as an example of suppression. In the case of Sampson and Thompson the influence of the forms Samson and Thomson is perhaps of some importance.

page 63 note 1 All that is said of these combinations applies also to ltf, as in filch, culture, and to, as in bulge, soldier.

page 63 note 1 In the first edition of his Elementarbuch he gives both and senfri; in the third edition, only sen.

page 63 note 2 Quoted by Storm, Englische Philologie, second edition, p. 442.

page 63 note 3 I know, from their own testimony, that this is true of Professor Whitney and Professor Porter.

page 63 note 4 Dialect Notes, II, p. 36.

page 63 note 5 Maître phonétique, Nov., 1894, p. 173.

page 63 note 6 Maître phonétique, Dec., 1893, pp. 168, 169.

page 63 note 1 Dialect Notes, III, pp. 168, 169. On p. 168 we find even censure and mention with a t.

page 63 note 2 It is hardly necessary to say that not one of the twelve has the entirely artificial pronunciation sentyuri, ventyur.

page 63 note 1 From lenþ and strenþ, without k, come, I suppose, the forms lenþ and strenþ, which are occasionally used by educated speakers.

page 63 note 2 Possibly a consciousness of the component parts of something tends to check the introduction of a p in this word.

page 63 note 1 In point of fact, about 50 per cent. of my correspondents confound cents and sense, half of them by dropping the t from cents, and half by inserting it in sense.

page 63 note 2 I found in my replies nothing like consistency in the usage of any one person or of any one state. In New York and Pennsylvania there seemed to be somewhat less confusion than elsewhere.

page 63 note 3 This word may be affected by the analogy of bump, from which it is perhaps derived. I do not understand, however, why consumption should lose its p so much oftener than Hampshire.

page 63 note 4 I suspect that the pronunciation of camphor is somewhat affected by the presence of a printed p, although here this letter is of course only a part of the digraph ph = f.

page 63 note 5 For these two words the pronunciations given by the dictionaries, and, prove to be in accordance with the practice of the majority of speakers.

page 63 note 1 Harvard Notes and Studies, II, p. 213.

page 63 note 2 Revue des patois gallo-romans, No. 14-15, p. 79.