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To: Kalam
***Linguistically, if I may be so bold: The ‘G’ should actually be a ‘J’ and that makes pronunciation of the word onion sound like ‘onjion’***

Head-scratching ????? I didn't follow this discussion, but this analysis seems non-sequitur. The 'g' in onion refers to the Old French word oignon, not English. Oh sure, there were maybe 100 spellings of 'onion' in Middle English, and such usages included the 'g', the 'y' and the 'ȝ' [I find the 'j' only in Lincolnshire (no date)].

I refer you to The Oxford English Dictionary entry for 'onion'. [my link stopped working; if needed, try to find a 'search' field.] The French supposedly took the word from the Latin unis 'one', presumably because there are no real roots in the ground, just a bulb. [the Latin for 'onion' is cæca]. The French actually used the word 'oignon' to refer to the bulb of the lily - the fleur-de-lis, their national symbol.

The 'j' is a linguistic Anglicization often otherwise pronounced as 'y' - e.g. Jerusalem = Yerushaláyim. The OED gives the pronunciation as: Brit. /ˈʌnjən/ , U.S. /ˈənj(ə)n/ ... where the 'j' phonetically indicates the 'y' - the front palatal approximant articulation - as a lenition of 'j'.

Whew! What was that? 😨

1,502 posted on 09/17/2018 10:45:55 AM PDT by Bob Ireland (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise)
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To: All

Fer cryin’ out loud - STFU on how people from different areas pronounce certain words. Take your slides and games over to FR main board. None of his has anything to do with the purpose of this thread. It doesn’t matter to me if you are a troll or just responding to trolls - one is as bad as the other.


1,525 posted on 09/17/2018 11:37:13 AM PDT by torqemada (Those who know, don't say. Those who say, don't know.)
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To: Bob Ireland

...[I find the ‘j’ only in Lincolnshire (no date)].


Well there you have it. I never new that President Lincoln had a shire. However, as has been stated, the ‘J’ was from Lincolnshire. President Lincoln was from Illinois. Illinois is in the Midwest. Therefore, proper linguistic pronunciations come from the Midwest. So the sentence, “My Ant wants me to warsh her car,” is proper. (At least in the Midwest it is.)


2,033 posted on 09/17/2018 8:18:03 PM PDT by Kalam (Poor me, I have lost my tagline :())
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