The etymology of "coleslaw"
Coleslaw came to us from Dutch via American English. Dutch kool means “cabbage” (cf. German Kohl, known to most as the family name of Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor of Germany, 1982-1998), while Dutch sla is the common colloquial form of salade “salad.” Thus, the etymon is koolsla.
It is unclear why the second element of coleslaw rhymes with haw, paw, raw, rather than with spa. Words like spa are rare in Modern English; outside baa-baa, blah-blah-blah, bah and their ilk they are exotic borrowings (ah sounds more natural in the unstressed syllables of names like Sarah, Hannah, and so forth, including Monty Python’s Peckinpah). The change from ah to aw
may have been the result of the word’s domestication. Or do we owe the
shape of the vowel to the Midwesterners, in whose speech Shaw is indistinguishable from Shah?
From the
Oxford University Press blog.
"coleslaw rhymes with haw, paw, raw, rather than with spa." Rather than with? They all rhyme in my ear. But, yes, I did grow up in Michigan.
ReplyDeleteEtymology is so damned much fun; egghead's delight.
ReplyDeleteZhoen, there's a subtle difference. "Spa" is pronounced as though it were spelled "spah," with the mouth relatively open. Not as though it were spelled "spaw" with the mouth more closed.
ReplyDeleteI read through the whole post not figuring out the difference until I hit the end.. yep, I'm a midwesterner, and they all sounded the same to me :)
ReplyDeleteNow I know!
To my Vermont ears (though dad from SD) spa absolutely rhymes with paw, raw, etc. Would be interested in figuring out where that distinction exists and what the exact pronunciations are.
ReplyDeleteAbbie, I can see where that might be true (or "hear" to be more accurate), since I used to live in Massachusetts. Regional accents are very interesting.
ReplyDeleteBut, byt, but, "spa" rhymes with "haw," "paw," etc. What the heck?
ReplyDelete(I'm a Canadian.)
ReplyDelete