昨日の記事「#1650. 文字素としての j の独立」 ([2013-11-02-1]) のために <j> の歴史を調べていたときに,Scragg (66--67fn) に記されていた <j> と <g> の相補的関係についての洞察に目がとまった.
In Old French orthography, the sound /dʒ/ (Mod. Fr. /ʒ/) was represented <i> (<j>) before <a o u> and <g> before <e i>. The convention was carried into Middle English in French loanwords, and survives, for example, in jacket, join, July, germ, giant. The resulting confusion with <g> for /g/ has sometimes been avoided by extending <j> to positions before <e> and <i>, e.g. jet (cf. get), jig (cf. gig), or alternatively the French convention of using <gu> for /g/ was adopted (guess, guide). In the sixteenth century, <gu> for /g/ was more widespread than it is today (e.g. guift, guirl 'gift, girl'), and some printers followed Caxton, whose long association with the Netherlands led him to use <gh> for /g/ very frequently (e.g. gherle, ghoos, ghes, ghoot 'girl, goose, geese, goat'). Sixteenth-century books often have <gh> where modern spelling has <gu> (e.g., ghess, ghest), and the Oxford English Dictionary even records ghuest. Sixteenth-century familiarity with Italian literature may have contributed here, as Italian has <gh> for /g/. In English it survives only in ghost, ghastly and gherkin.
この説明を私なりに整理すると次のようになる.フランス借用語を大量に入れた中英語では,フランス語の綴字習慣をまねて,/ʤ/ に対する綴字を,後続母音の前舌性・後舌性によって <g> か <j> かに割り当てた.一方,<g> は従来 /g/ を表わしていたので,<g> と <j> の音の対応は原則として以下のようになっていた.
<i> | <e> | <a> | <o> | <u> | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
<g> | /ʤi/, /gi/ | /ʤe/, /ge/ | /ga/ | /go/ | /gu/ |
<j> | /ʤa/ | /ʤo/ | /ʤu/ |
<i> | <e> | <a> | <o> | <u> | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
<g> | (/ʤi/, /gi/) | (/ʤe/, /ge/) | /ga/ | /go/ | /gu/ |
<gu> | /gi/ | /ge/ | |||
<j> | /ʤi/ | /ʤe/ | /ʤa/ | /ʤo/ | /ʤu/ |
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