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#187598 - 11/02/09 05:51 PM -ght
LukeJavan8 Offline
old hand

Registered: 06/23/08
Posts: 830
Loc: Land of Flat River
Is there an explanation for the -ght found in so many words
that seem to have no other connection to each other besides
these three letters? Was there some sort of "contraction" of
words early our languages' development that resulted in these?
I am thinking of words like: might, fought, sight, wrought,
sought, light, etc.

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#187599 - 11/02/09 06:57 PM Re: -ght [Re: LukeJavan8]
Faldage Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/01/00
Posts: 12381
The -gh- represented a back of the throat sound no longer present in the language. Besides the words ending in -ght there are a number ending in -gh. I can't think of any ending in -gh- followed by any other letter but that doesn't mean there aren't any. But, no, it's not the remnant of any contraction.

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#187604 - 11/02/09 10:08 PM Re: -ght [Re: Faldage]
Jackie Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 10232
Loc: Louisville, Kentucky
BTW, is slough pronounced sluff?

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#187605 - 11/02/09 10:18 PM Re: -ght [Re: Jackie]
olly Offline
addict

Registered: 12/18/06
Posts: 611
Loc: Auckland, New Zealand
Thats how I've always pronounced it.

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#187606 - 11/02/09 10:22 PM Re: -ght [Re: olly]
latishya Offline
enthusiast

Registered: 11/24/07
Posts: 361
Loc: कहीं &...
Wiki says it rhymes with cow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough

This is the pronunciation heard in the British TV series "The Office", set in Slough.

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#187608 - 11/02/09 10:51 PM Re: -ght [Re: latishya]
zmjezhd Online content
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 08/13/05
Posts: 2270
Loc: R'lyeh
slough

Ah, the slough of despond. In UK English, it rhymes with cow. In US English it rhymes with pew. (I used to live near Midshipman Slough, near Tubbs Island, in Sonoma county.) I spent a lovely week in Slough, England (near Maidenhead, Windsor, and Eton). The so-called poet, John Betjeman, wrote a famous poem starting:
Quote:
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow
Swarm over, Death!

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#187609 - 11/02/09 11:17 PM Re: -ght [Re: zmjezhd]
olly Offline
addict

Registered: 12/18/06
Posts: 611
Loc: Auckland, New Zealand
I was thinking of the verb form.

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#187612 - 11/03/09 05:39 AM Re: -ght [Re: Jackie]
BranShea Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 3387
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
Originally Posted By: Jackie
BTW, is slough pronounced sluff?


In California I heard it pronounced as 'slew'.

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#187613 - 11/03/09 05:49 AM Re: -ght [Re: BranShea]
Faldage Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/01/00
Posts: 12381
I don't think it was Slough, but there's an area in England where there are three towns, all with the same name, at least by spelling, ending in ough and they're all pronounced different. I think the pronunciations are 'oo' (or maybe 'oh'), 'uff', and 'ow'.


Edited by Faldage (11/03/09 05:52 AM)
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#187618 - 11/03/09 07:27 AM Re: -ght [Re: LukeJavan8]
zmjezhd Online content
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 08/13/05
Posts: 2270
Loc: R'lyeh
-ght

The quick answer is that words in English ending in -ght fall into three groups: (1) verbal forms where the -t is a suffix in Old English denoting tense/aspect, (2) words that go back to PIE roots ending in -k(w)-t, and (3) miscellaneous.

In group 1, you have words like bought (< buy), brought (from bring), sight (from see), wrought (from work), etc. In group 2, words like night (cf. Latin nox, noctis, Greek nuks, nuktos), wight (and aught, nought, too, < PIE *wekti- 'being', cf. Russian veshch 'thing'). In group three, some words with unknown etymologies, e.g., blight. (There is some overlap between groups 1 and 2 because, it may be the same process but simply a matter of when it happened in the Old English, Proto-Germanic, or PIE period.) The main reason for supposing a suffix PIE -t- is that PIE roots are usually of the form CVC (simplified, with V covering a lot of other kinds of sounds than vowels). You can see this in the examples light and night above. Cf. Latin lux, lucis, 'light' which does not have the -t-, but German Licht, English light, which do.

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#187624 - 11/03/09 01:33 PM Re: -ght [Re: zmjezhd]
LukeJavan8 Offline
old hand

Registered: 06/23/08
Posts: 830
Loc: Land of Flat River
Wow! Thanks, gives me lots of things to look up and research.
I really appreciate your taking the time to give me some
sort of 'quality" answer. Grateful.

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