Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!cornellcs!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!portc01.blue.aol.com!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!newspump.sol.net!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!ford.uchicago.edu!wald
From: wald@ford.uchicago.edu (Kevin Wald)
Subject: Re: French and English language relations: past and present...
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: ford.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <E0KJwz.MvG@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: Dept. of Mathematics
References: <327EA6EC.2746@copland.udel.edu> <ALDERSON.96Nov5125318@netcom16.netcom.com> <55vi5p$o64@halley.pi.net>
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 20:36:35 GMT
Lines: 27

In article <55vi5p$o64@halley.pi.net>,
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal <mcv@pi.net> wrote:

[ . . . ]

>  Awe bleteth after lomb,
>  Lhouth after calve cu;
>  Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth,
>  Murie sing cuccu!

[ . . . ]

>[But what does "murie" mean?]

"Merry". The y in Old English _myr(i)ge_ became u, i, and e in
different dialects of Middle English; "murie" in the song comes
from a u-dialect, while our "merry" comes from an e-dialect.

This dialect difference in the outcome of OE y has some 
amusing results, by the way; we write "busy" and say /bIzi/,
and write "bury" and say /beri/, because in each case we 
are using the spelling from one dialect and the pronunciation
from another. (The original OE forms are _bysig_ and _byrigan_.)


Kevin Wald
wald@math.uchicago.edu
