DID COWS SAY MOOG?
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The hard ‘g’ is generally accepted by academics, as in gag, not George. The evidence, though, is patchy, and it’s quite likely the sound varied according to position, individual word and user. A sound closer to modern Greek ‘g’ with more of a ‘y’ sound from the back of the roof of the mouth seems to be more appropriate in, say ego (Italian io, Spanish yo) or magister (French maître, Italian maestro). And catch the sound of escaping in fugit irreparabile tempus (irreparable time is escaping) with 'fu-yit' as opposed to the stumbling 'fu-git'. Given the widespread use of onomatopœic words for animal noises ('hiss', 'mi-aow', 'growl') are we to suppose from Latin mugire ('to moo') that two thousand years ago cows said 'moog'? |