ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) (06/21/85)
>If only I could remember all that literary and linguistic terminology that I >learned in high school English! You see, the switch "an other" <=> >"a nother" is a common and well known one, and there is a standard term for >the process. --- Prentiss Riddle Several cases where -n from the indefinite article was transferred to become n- of the following noun: an adder <= a nadder < AS aedre `snake' an apron <= a napron < OF napperon < napa < Lat mappa? `napkin' an umpire <= a numpire < OF nonper < Lat non+par `not a peer' an auger <= a na[u=v]ger < AS nafo-gar `nave drill/spear' a nickname <= an ekename < AS eacian `increase,eke' <IE> Lat `augere' a newt <= an e[u=v=f]t < AS efeta An instance where the ancient dative inflexional -n was transferred from the definite article to the beginning of the following word is `nonce', in the expression: for the nonce <= for then ones,once -michael
td@alice.UUCP (Tom Duff) (06/24/85)
> An instance where the ancient dative inflexional -n was transferred from > the definite article to the beginning of the following word is `nonce', in > the expression: > > for the nonce <= for then ones,once In fact, the process of shifting the N back and forth between noun and article is referred to by linguists as `noncing' after this example.