'Mopsae'の発音

The Pronunciations of the MOPSAE

Imazato Chiaki

広島大学総合科学部紀要. V, 言語文化研究

Bulletin of the Faculty of Integrated Arts and Science, Hiroshima University. V, Studies in Language and Culture

Among those who dealt with the sounds of English about the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries, Alexander Gill the author of Logonomia Anglica (1619, 1621) figured foremost. There are lots of notable particulars concerning the general principles of correct spelling and his phonetic script in the book; moreover, there is an important reference on the pronunciations of the Mopsae, the name of the mothers of the boys.

Gill tells us that the standard of correctness in pronunciation is the speech of 'docti, aut culte eruditi viri' (the learned and cultured). It is quite reasonable that he should think so because he was 'Magister primarius' (High Master) of St Paul's school in London. Gill, treating the characterictics of seventeenth-century dialectal pronunciation, illustrates the advanced pronunciation of the Mopsae: according to Gill's phonetic script they pronounce, for example, lën for laun (lawn); këmbrik for kämbrik (cambric); këpn or almost kïpn for käpon (capon); biccherz mït for bucherz mët (butcher's meat); Ʒintlimin for Ʒentlwimen (gentlewomen); mëds for maids (maids). He also reports that the Mopsae often say to him, "I pre ya gï yar skalerz lïv to plë." (I pray you give your scholars leave to play.) Thus the speech of the Mopsae shows a strong tendency towards high-pitch vowels.

As Gill says, 'Orientates contra pleraque attenuant,' the Eastern dialect is remarkable for a general 'thinness.' It is quite the same with the pronunciations of the Mopsae, because they 'qae quidem ita omnia attenuant.' Judging from the fact that all the other features of the speech of the Mopsae have Eastern parallels, Dobson (1968^2) derives the pronunciations of the Mopsae from those of the Eastern dialect, but the present writer proves it unreasonable.

English [ 830 ]

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広島大学総合科学部

Copyright (c) 1988 by Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, All rights reserved.

[ISSN] 0385-1494

[NCID] AN00077749