Re: "Brithenig"; stress again

[raybrown@macline.co.uk (Raymond A. Brown)]

Again, apologies for tardy reply.

At 13:08 29/4/98, Andrew Smith wrote:
[...]
>to bed.  I think that Brithenig is pronounced in Brithenig as /brITE'nig/,

I agree.

>I have no problems with pronouncing Kemr as /'kemEr/ because it is a
>vowel-insertion, and not originally part of the word.

Yep - this is in line with South Walian practice.  In words of two or more
syllables, the final syllabic r is simply dropped (not infrequently in
writing also); thus, e.g. ffenestr (window) in the south is [fEnEst] and
often written 'ffenest'; but ther plural is always 'ffenestri'.

The North Walians, I'm assured, keep syllbic, unstressed r, thus Pedr
(Peter) remains [pEdr] and a window is ['fEnEstr]

>It's probably worth
>looking at how French handles word final syllable clusters ending in r#.

The final [R] is syllabic, but never stressed, thus vo^tre [votR].

>Ray, you have first hand knowledge of this, can I ask you to advise us?

I have.

The evidence both of Welsh & French strongly suggest that syllabic final -r
(and -l ?) would _not_ receive stress even if the language were stressed on
the ultimate.  I can see no reason why the -r should not be trilled and
syllabic (I can pronounce it); but there could well be regional veriation
(as in Wales), where some dialects insert an epenthetic vowel, thus 'Kemr'
= [kemr] or ['kemEr].

Raifun.

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Written in Net English        Humor not necessarily marked

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