RE: Gloranthan ?! Linguistics

From: martin.helsdon <martin.helsdon_at_eKBwGfUrKyU49ohcvG1s6LUAZxf1msptQhrMrZ2CdwnRWnFHygrs0Q6zPPB5f>
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:40:33 +0100


> How can anybody write a word that a Roman (inventor of the Latin
> alphabet) would have written "Wuster" write Worcester?!

A local would pronounce it Wooster; as an East Anglian I'd pronounce it Woorster. In between now and when the spelling was 'fixed', roughly when printing began, the middle vowel was lost. A Roman may have called the town Vertis; in Anglo-Saxon times Weorgoranceaster...

English spelling is full of such shifts.

I wonder how Gloranthan names have changed since the Dawn? For that matter, is Pavis really pronounced the way Pavis would have spoken his name?            

Powered by hypermail