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xiphiasThis morning, as I was driving Lis to work, we were talking about the word "fish." I mentioned that I was surprised that there wasn't anything in English like "fisk" from the same root, except maybe a surname. (In Old English "sc" is pronounced as "sh" is in Modern English, so there are lots of words in English which came down as both "sh" and "sk" variations -- "shirt" and "skirt", "dish" and "disk", a "skipper" is one who runs a "ship", stuff like that. Since "fisc" is "fish" in OE, I was surprised that there isn't a "fisk" word of which I was aware).
Lis mentioned that, because of the f<-->p shift, "fisc" and "pisc" were the same word, which is neat. I don't know WHY f and p change into each other -- or b and v change into each other -- but they do. You can see it really obviously in Hebrew, but it's common among other Indo-European langages, too.
This evening, Lis looked up some of those words in the OED, and we found that "fiscal" comes from a word for a rush basket. I don't know that it has anything to do with fish.
Lis mentioned that, because of the f<-->p shift, "fisc" and "pisc" were the same word, which is neat. I don't know WHY f and p change into each other -- or b and v change into each other -- but they do. You can see it really obviously in Hebrew, but it's common among other Indo-European langages, too.
This evening, Lis looked up some of those words in the OED, and we found that "fiscal" comes from a word for a rush basket. I don't know that it has anything to do with fish.
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Date: 2005-02-10 11:02 am (UTC)Actually, that's basically it. There are some sounds that have a tendency to turn into each other (q.v. sk <-> sh), and those are generally sounds that are articulated in the same place. In the case of f and p, most of the action is happening in the lips. There is probably, in some cases, a consonant between these two that is pronounced with just the lips together and sounds pretty much like f. Phonological Terminology Grab-Bag Fun Time: f is a labiodental (articulated with the lips and teeth) fricative (the airflow is mostly restricted); p is a labial (articulated with the lips) stop (the airflow is halted). Both are unvoiced.
b and p turn into each other like billy-o, as do other voiced/unvoiced pairs (s <-> z, k <-> g, the really complicated t <-> d, etc), but in ways usually heavily influenced by the surrounding sounds, so you have to dig a little more than with sk <-> sh to see that it's systematic, as virtually all sound changes that catch on are.