| 释义 |
wr-|r|
a consonantal combination occurring initially in a number of words (frequently implying twisting or distortion), the earlier of which usually have cognates with the same initial sounds in the older Germanic languages. The combination is regularly preserved in Gothic, OS., OFris., and OE., but in OHG. is reduced to r. In ON. the w was lost before rō̆, rū̆, at an early date over the whole Scandinavian area; at a later period in all other words in ONorw. and OIcel. In the modern Germanic tongues wr- remains in Du., Flem., LG., and Fris., and is represented by vr- in Da., Sw., and some Norw. dialects.
Some 130 words in wr- are recorded from the OE. period, and a number of these survive in the later language, while others have been added from Du. and LG. Early difficulty in pronouncing the combination may be indicated by the Old Northumbrian spellings with wur-, and by the 14–15th cent. weritt ‘writ’, werangus ‘wrongous’. The r is sometimes separated from the w by metathesis, as in ME. wærð for wræð ‘wroth’, werch for wrech ‘wretch’, wirten for written; but conversely wr- may arise from the same cause, as in OE. wryhta ‘wright’, for wyrhta. Signs of the dropping of the w begin to appear about the middle of the 15th cent. in such spellings as ringe for wring v., rong for wrong adj.; these become common in the 16th cent. (for examples see wrangle, wrap, wreak, wreck, wrench, wrest, etc.). Reduction of the sound is also indicated by the converse practice of writing wr- for r-, which similarly appears in the 15th cent. (in wrath for rathe), and becomes common in the 16th; for examples see the subordinate entries under wrack, wracked, wragged, wrap, wrape, wretchless, etc. In standard English the w was finally dropped in the 17th century; it has remained (though now obsolescent) in Scottish, and in some south-western English dialects is represented by v, which is also regular in north-eastern Scottish.
The phonetists Bullokar (Amendment of Ortographie, 1580) and Gill (Logonomia, 1621) have wr- throughout, and no doubt pronounced the w. Later authorities, e.g. R. Hodges (English Primrose, 1644), mark the w in this combination as silent. |