Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 16:53:12 +0700 From: Gwyn Williams Subject: Aches and Pains Hello t'all and compliments of the season. A query: Thai learners of English consistently pronounce the word "headache" as [hedeetS] and "stomach ache" as [stoma:tS eetS] (these being approximate transcriptions of the Thai pronunciations). I had always assumed that these were spelling pronunciations. However, in a recent article about World Englishes in a local newspaper, it was said that Hongkong English speakers also pronounce "headache" in a similar manner. Is this just the coincidence of spelling pronunciations? Or does it reflect an older or "non-standard" pronunciation of English? My dictionary gives OE acan for "ache". I am aware that represented a velar stop in OE, but that this sound was palatalized, but only before front vowels, eg., OE cild "child". Were "stomach" and "ache" ever palatalized? Or does any particular accent palatalize these words? BTW my dictionary gives only Gk stomachos as the source for "stomach". How is the pronounced? Regards Mr Gwyn Williams Thammasat University Bangkok