hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2024-10-14

■ #5649. いつ <l> の綴字を重ねるか？ [spelling][orthography][latin][greek][french][prefix][etymology][l]

　昨日の記事「#5648. <l> の綴字を重ねるか否かの問題」 ([2024-10-13-1]) に続き，<ll> の話題．今回はイギリス英語では <ll> と重ね，アメリカ英語では <l> と1つのみ，という既知の傾向は別として，どのような単語において <ll> が現われるか，その分布をみてみたい．
　昨日，次のように述べた．

<ll> はもともと古典語にゆかりのある綴字だったが，そこへ非古典語であるフランス語が混乱要因として参入してきた．フランス語は古典語由来の重ねた <ll> をそのまま受け継がず，1重化した <l> で継承することがしばしばあったために，それらが混在している英語語彙は正書法上 <l> を重ねるか否かについての厄介な問題を抱え込むことになったのだ．

　<ll> の分布について，Carney (250) の説明と単語例の列挙を引用しよう．

Normally, <l> would double after a short vowel in a monosyllable (bell, cell, doll, mill, etc.), but there are some exceptions. There are all marginal in various ways, usually by abbreviation: technical loan col ('gap between hills' < French); gal (< girl), pal (< Romany); technical abbreviations bet (< the name '(A. G.) Bell', = 'unit of power comparison'), cel (< celluloid . . .), gel (< gelatine), mel ('perpetual unit of pitch'), mil (< millimetre), nil (contraction of Latin nihil); short names Hal (< Henry), Sal (< Sally) . . . .
   Examples of <-ll-> with prefixes . . .:

- (reduced vowel): alleviate, alliteration, allude, allusion, ally (v.); collate, collateral, collect (v.), collide, collision.
- (unreduced vowel): Allocate, ally (n.); collect (n.), colleague, college, collimate, colloquy; illegal, illegible, illicit, illimitable, illuminate, illusion, illustrate; pellucid.

There are quite a few words which resemble the above and in which the <-ll-> is not covered by other doubling conventions: allegory, allergy, alligator. There is some etymological uncertainty about allot, allow, and allure. Allay has come to have a §Latinate appearance in spite of its Old English origin (a + lecgan). To the average reader these spellings must seem to belong with the §Latinate prefixes.
   A good many words . . . have <-ll-> in the third syllable from the end of a free-form after a stressed short vowel. The ending <-ion> seems to require this spelling, but not in all instances: billion, bullion, galleon, million, mullion, pillion, postillion, stallion, but also battalion, pavilion, verlion. Compare doubled and single <r> in carrion--clarion.
   Other examples of <-ll-> unaccounted for are: ballerina, ballistic, balloon, bellicose, brilliant, bulletin, calligraphy, calliopsis, camellia, colliery, ebullient, ellipse, embellish, fallacious, fallacy, fallible, gallery, gallium, halleluja, hallucinate, hellebore, intellect, intelligent, mellifluous, miscellany, palliate, pallium, parallel, pollute, shallot, shillelagh, tellurium.
   Pseudo-compounds are: ballyhoo, bulldozer, hullaballoo, lollipop, scallywag.

　<ll> をめぐる少々の傾向と諸々の混沌がつかめるのではないか．英語の正書法はかくも複雑である．

　・ Carney, Edward. A Survey of English Spelling. Abingdon: Routledge, 1994.

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