hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2017-08-05

■ #3022. sneeze の語源 (2) [spelling][onomatopoeia][edd][etymology]

　「#1152. sneeze の語源」 ([2012-06-22-1]) を巡る議論に関連して，追加的に話題を提供したい．Horobin (60) は，この問題について次のように評している．

. . . Old English had a number of words that began with the consonant cluster <fn>, pronounced with initial /fn/. This combination is no longer found at the beginning of any Modern English word. What has happened to these words? In the case of the verb fneosan, the initial /f/ ceased to be pronounced in the Middle English period, giving an alternative spelling nese, alongside fnese. Because it was no longer pronounced, the <f> began to be confused with the long-s of medieval handwriting and this gave rise to the modern form sneeze, which ultimately replaced fnese entirely. The OED suggests that sneeze may have replaced fnese because of its 'phonetic appropriateness', that is to say, because it was felt to resemble the sound of sneezing more closely. This is a tempting theory, but one that is hard to substantiate.

　また，現代でも諸方言には，語頭に摩擦子音のみられない neese や neeze の形態が残っていることに注意したい．EDD Online の NEEZE, v. sb. によれば，以下の通り neese, neease, neesh-, neze などの異綴字が確認される．



　long <s> については，「#584. long <s> と graphemics」 ([2010-12-02-1])，「#1732. Shakespeare の綴り方 (2)」 ([2014-01-23-1])，「#2997. 1800年を境に印刷から消えた long <s>」 ([2017-07-11-1]) を参照．

　・ Horobin, Simon. Does Spelling Matter? Oxford: OUP, 2013.

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