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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: etymology of "geas"
Message-ID: <1995Jan21.024220.3883@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <By27hLz.bwelden@delphi.com> <1995Jan20.043447.18579@midway.uchicago.edu> <aldersonD2pwtv.76p@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 02:42:20 GMT
Lines: 40

In article <aldersonD2pwtv.76p@netcom.com> alderson@netcom.com writes:
>In article <1995Jan20.043447.18579@midway.uchicago.edu> deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu
>(Daniel von Brighoff) writes:

>>Folk etymology, more like it.  It has nothing to do with Greek 'ge' "earth".
>
>This is of course not "folk etymology" in the technical sense, which rather
>refers to the phonological re-shaping of words to make them less transparent
>(for example, "sparrowgrass" for "asparagus").

So what's the technical term for a naive amateur attempt to 
etymologise words based on chance sound correspondances?  I'd 
thought that "folk etymology" could apply to that as well.

>>Btw, it's pronounced (IPA) [gj%s]/'gyass' (rhymes with American English
>>'glass'), not [gi@s]/ 'ghee-uss', as I always hear RPGers say it.
>
>American English 'glass' in what part of the country?  In Chicago that may be a
>mid-low front vowel, not a low front vowel.  (I don't remember what <%> means
>in EK's ASCII IPA.)

Then look it up.  It's a low front unrounded vowel and it exists even
in 'Chikeago'.  I figured that the chance that the poster had this 
pronunciation *and* did not realise it was nonstandard was vanishingly 
small.

Any more nitpicking?
>
>However, knowing that it's Irish explains the spelling:  That <a> is an ortho-
>graphic device to indicate that the final <s> is not palatal(ized), and has
>nothing to do with the vocalic nucleus of the word.

Backwards:  the 'a' is the vocalic nucleus and the 'e' shows the 
palatisation of the initial consonant.  If this were not the case,
the pronunciation would be [g'E(@)s] instead (which it may be in
some dialects, but not the standard language).
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
