Re: Orthography supporting sound changes?

On Fri, 06 Jan 2006 23:56:22 GMT, "Peter T. Daniels"
<grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:43BF03A7.2AFD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:

> Joachim Pense wrote:

>> Am Fri, 06 Jan 2006 13:31:45 GMT schrieb Peter T. Daniels:

[...]

>>> Cf. Eng. peak/peek/Peke

>> What happened with these words?

> They merged.

I'm not sure that this is a good example. According to the
OED, <peek> is of uncertain origin and only appears in the
late 14th century; the earliest citations have <pyke> and
<pike>. <Peak> is apparently a variant of <pike> in origin;
the earliest citations are from the 15th century, as <peke>.
And of course <Peke> is modern, so it can hardly be said to
have *merged* with the others.

Brian
.