Re: Stress accent?

[Andrew Smith <hobbit@mail.earthlight.co.nz>]

On Sat, 4 Apr 1998, Raymond A. Brown wrote:

> The development of Brithenig in fact resembles more closely French & Welsh
> in that all post tonic syllables have tended to disappear.  This results in
> stress regularly on the final syllable which is still the French norm; this
> was also the rule in medieval Welsh (spelling makes this quite clear).  The
> change to the modern Welsh habit of stressing the penult is a development
> of the modern period - possibly BritEnglish influence which dislike final
> stress.  I'd expect Brithenig to have developed final syllable stress like
> French or medieval Welsh.  Whether it then followed modern Welsh & changed
> to a penult syllable, I don't know.  We'll have to be informed by its
> discoverer  ;-)  But personally, I rather hope not.
> 
I'm willing to keep Brithenig's stress medieval if people are agreeable to
it.  The Welsh stressed schwa is too much of a chimera that I want to
tackle it!  I'll add it to the must-edit list.

- andrew.

Andrew Smith                                  <hobbit@earthlight.co.nz>
Life is short, so am I...