[MR] Word for the Day

[David W. James]

Rowanwald Central wrote:
> Rowanwald Central wrote:
> > > Today's [old] new word is:
> > > Gebeorscipe  (or "beorscipe")

> > Where did you find something -worse to pronounce- than Welsh?

> > Magnus Appalled

> Aw, Magnus! Afraid of a little Anglo-Saxon? It's pronounced "gee (as in
> giddy-up) beer - skip", or alternately, "beer - ship" 

	I would be interested in hearing a source for the 'skip'
pronounciation.  I've never heard or read that as valid, with only 'sh'
being the correct pronounciation for OE 'sc', but it's been 13 years
since I took the OE class (which I didn't get to finish.)  'An Old
English Grammar", Quirk and Wrenn, states:

"By the time of Classical OE, the biliteral sc had come to represent the
single consonant sound [IPA symbol for ModEng 'sh'] heard initial in
Mod.E. 'ship' and in the OE form "scip"; in poetry, words beginning with
sc- could alliterate only with other words beginning with 'sc-'.

C, by itself, did have both hard ('k') and a soft ('ch') use, but the
hard version was not used following 's'.

I strongly recommend Howell D. Chickering, Jr's "Beowulf, A
Dual-Language Edition" for a good guide to pronunciation, reading and
speaking Old English.  But I bought my copy back in 1977 when it was
brand new, and I don't know if it is still in print.  Chickering baldly
states, on page 36, "sc is like sh in Mod. Eng. ship: OE. scip 'ship'"

David/Kwellend-Njal