LINGUIST List 11.572

Wed Mar 15 2000

Disc: Underlying Schwa?

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. R�my Viredaz, Disc: Underlying Schwa?

Dear Linguists,

Some contributors to the discussion on underlying schwas refer to
"foreign cognates" as a criterion for analysing surface schwas. 
Is it not going too far? In my opinion this use foreign (probably Latin)
cognates amounts to making diachronic linguistics while pretending not
to, i.e. making "underlying" a covert synonym of "Middle English".

Remy Viredaz, Geneva