Talk:swie

RFV discussion: May–July 2018
Is this attested in modern English? - -sche (discuss) 16:43, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Edna Rees Williams, in The Conflict of Homonyms in English (1944), page 100, says it is not: - -sche (discuss) 00:34, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
 * OE swīᵹan 'to be silent' became ME swīᵹe, swie [MED: swīen], by normal phonetic development, by the year 1200. Middle English had, in consequence, in the 13th century two verbs identical in sound, one meaning 'to make a noise, to resound,' the other 'to be silent.' Confusion was, obviously, unavoidable between them so long as both remained in the language. Swie 'to be silent' became obsolete almost immediately, except possibly in one dialect survival. Swie forms of swēȝan [MED: sweien] 'to make a noise' vanished; swei(e forms survived. But they did not survive into Modern Standard English.


 * I haven't find anything in the English Dialect Dictionary that looks like a dialectal survival of this verb (the EDD sometimes has citations or pointers to other spellings, which can be helpful). It does mention as a possible relative, and  as a possible 'survival' of the other ("resound") sweien, both already obsolete in Wright's day. - -sche (discuss) 00:46, 29 May 2018 (UTC)


 * Shouldn't the two senses ("be quiet" and "shut up") be merged? Same thing. Equinox ◑ 18:48, 1 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Is it used transitively? DCDuring (talk) 21:10, 1 June 2018 (UTC)
 * If this is kept in Modern English, a note should be added that it's a homophone of swai. Khemehekis (talk) 00:24, 3 June 2018 (UTC)


 * RFV failed; the Middle English entry already exists. —Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 23:07, 21 July 2018 (UTC)