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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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All right, all you etymologists out there, I need your help with something.
Why is there a W in sword? And why, oh why do we not pronounce it?
I have never questioned it before but tonight my mom, who is very French, asked my brother if he would take his decorative sWord home since she was converting the back room to a den. She pronounced the W. I told her the correct pronunciation but had no explanation as to why it was so.
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Carpal Tunnel
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 we've talked about the Welsh w (cf. cwm), haven't we? Forms: 1–4 sweord, (1 sueord, swurd), 1, 4 (6 Sc.) suord, 1, 6 swyrd, 3–5 (6 Sc.) suerd, 3–6 swerd, (3 swærd, swuerd), 4–6 swerde, sworde, (4 surd, squorde, Ayenb. zuord, 4–5 swerid, swert, 5 sward, swirde, swhirde, squrd, sqwerd, 6 sweard(e, swyrde, swurde, shorde, showrde, swourd, swoord(e, Sc. swrd, sourd), 1, 5– sword. [OE. sweord str. n. = OS., OFris. swerd, MLG. swert, MDu. swaert (Du. zwaard), OHG., MHG. swert (G. schwert), ON. sverð (Sw. svärd, Da. sverd) the first known written usage is from Beowolf: Helmas and heard sweord.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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tsuwm expounds: we've talked about the Welsh w (cf. cwm), haven't we?
Forms: 1–4 sweord, (1 sueord, swurd), 1, 4 (6 Sc.) suord, 1, 6 swyrd, 3–5 (6 Sc.) suerd, 3–6 swerd, (3 swærd, swuerd), 4–6 swerde, sworde, (4 surd, squorde, Ayenb. zuord, 4–5 swerid, swert, 5 sward, swirde, swhirde, squrd, sqwerd, 6 sweard(e, swyrde, swurde, shorde, showrde, swourd, swoord(e, Sc. swrd, sourd), 1, 5– sword. [OE. sweord str. n. = OS., OFris. swerd, MLG. swert, MDu. swaert (Du. zwaard), OHG., MHG. swert (G. schwert), ON. sverð (Sw. svärd, Da. sverd)
the first known written usage is from Beowolf:
Helmas and heard sweord.
Yes, but why is the "w" silent? Those of us not steeped in the history of "w" in Welsh are awaiting this with bated (and baited) breath ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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That etymology just shows it had a w in it originally. It must have taken part in the w-colouring that means word and lord, ward and hard don't rhyme, whenever that was (1500s?), since the word "sward" exists and has the expected "or" vowel as in "ward", and "sword" didn't collapse into it, so must have become something like "swurd" to rhyme with curd.
Then the w must have been lost after that, but before er and ur and ir became the same, since it still exists in swerve and swirl.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The w in sword is so you won't think it's a flight of mallards.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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CK carps: Yes, but why is the "w" silent? Those of us not steeped in the history of "w" in Welsh are
awaiting this with bated (and baited) breath ...
see 'sourd', one of the many variant spellings; 'w' still is a vowel, with approximately the value of 'u', in the Welsh tongue.
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Carpal Tunnel
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tsuwm mutters: CK carps: Yes, but why is the "w" silent? Those of us not steeped in the history of "w" in Welsh are
awaiting this with bated (and baited) breath ...
see 'sourd', one of the many variant spellings; 'w' still is a vowel, with approximately the value of 'u', in the Welsh tongue.
Quite seriously, is there a relationship then between the Welsh cwm and the southern English coomb? The pronunciation can't be that different, and they appear to represent the same type of geographical feature.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The w in sword is so you won't think it's a flight of mallards.Oooh yes! Just think - if you tried to goose someone --- it brings tears to the eyes ( and tears to the clothing) 
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
Quite seriously, is there a relationship then between the Welsh cwm and the southern English coomb? The pronunciation can't be that different, and they appear to represent the same type of geographical feature.
well... here's more than you probably wanted to know:
[In OE., cumb masc. ‘small valley, hollow’ occurs in the charters, in the descriptions of local boundaries in the south of England; also in numerous place-names which still exist, as Batancumb Batcombe, Brancescumb Branscombe, Eastcumb Eastcomb, Sealtcumb Salcombe, Wincelcumb Winchcombe, etc. As a separate word it is not known in ME. literature, but has survived in local use, in which it is quite common in the south of England: see sense b. In literature coomb appears in the second half of the 16th c., probably introduced from local use; a century later, it was still treated by Ray as a local southern word. OE. cumb is usually supposed to be of British origin: modern Welsh has cwm (kum) in the same sense, also in composition in place-names as -cwm, -gwm, and in syntactic combination as Cwm Bochlwyd. A large number of place- names beginning with Cum-, especially frequent in Cumbria, Dumfriesshire, and Strathclyde, as Cumwhitton, Cumdivock, Cumlongan, Cumloden, appear to be thus formed. Welsh cwm represents an earlier cumb, OCeltic *kumbos. The OE. word might however be an obvious application of cumb, coomb1, to a physical feature, though there is no trace of any such application of the cognate German words on the Continent; in any case, if the Saxons and Angles found a British cumb applied to a hollow in the ground, its coincidence with their own word for ‘basin, bowl, deep vessel’ would evidently favour its acceptance and common use. This might further be strengthened, after the Norman Conquest, by the existence of a F. combe ‘petite vallée, pli de terrain, lieu bas entouré de collines’ (Littré, 12th c.), cognate with Pr., Sp. and north It. comba, for which also a Celtic origin has been claimed...] {OED}
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Carpal Tunnel
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well... here's more than you probably wanted to know:
Well, it was more than I was expecting, but it was interesting and informative. Thanks.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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