Christopher D King PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

V: PHONOLOGY - Analysis
/e/. It is perhaps mildly surprising that there is no trace of a
characteristically West Midland rounded vowel. But the evidence is
emphatic and includes even localities that lie towards the West
Midlands region: Childwall, Cronton, Prescot and Stanlow.
3. The digraphs in leof, peof are of uncertain significance.
A likely interpretation is perhaps that the spellings and
either represent /0/ or are survivals of spellings representing /m/,
since /0/ is a regular development from OE /go/ and is
commonly used to represent this sound in ME. 1
4. The second el of Walthescroft (i) suggests /a/ arising
through low stress, which would exclude it from evidence for the
development of go in stressed positions. However comparison with
(ii) raises the possibility that a strong pronunciation did survive and
that the in this PN represents a local monophthongal
development of the vowel in peo f. Otherwise the difference between
the two forms may be accounted for by their respective dates, so that
the vowel in the genitive inflection was lost and the main vowel
neutralized during c1259x77, the later form in this way being
discounted as evidence for /e/.
Group 7: OE pöl
1. P51 and its analogues are similar in form and meaning
but no genetic relationship has been demonstrated. Nor have dialectal
affiliations been determined beyond Smith's remark on pull. The
following variants concern us.
(i) OE pöi;
(ii) OE pult;
(iii) pot t: of somewhat doubtful status in the OE vernacular
but with stronger associations with Celtic languages and
with PNs in Northwest England.
This variable occurs 155 times in WCB. A full, and generally
encouraging, comparison of versions is given for this group in Chapter
II.
I Jordan §84n1
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