Re: Brithenig diphthongs (was: Yiddish influences in Brithenig)

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

On Thu, 7 May 1998, Raymond A. Brown wrote:

> This is correct in that ae & oe have fallen together with ai & oi in the
> Welsh of the anglicized south east.  If you move westward, however, you
> find the pronunciations [a:] and [o:] are common for these digraphs.  When
> I taught in Croesyceiliog in SE Wales a Welsh speaking colleague of mine
> always called Felin Foel ['vElIn vo:l] (maybe Sally sample a pint or two of
> FF during her sojourn in Wales  :-)
> 
> I'm told that the Gogs in the north pronounce them the same as their {au} &
> {ou}, i.e. the tongue moves towards the high _central_ position of the
> north Walian {u} (IPA barred-i).  In the south {u} & {i} have universally
> fallen together as /i/, and certainly {au} and {ou} have fallen together
> with {ai} and {oi} in the south also.  But, as you see above, this has not
> happened universally with {ae} & {oe}.
>
That explains it.  I resisted introducing high to mid central vowels into
Brithenig - it played havoc with the orthography, so I resisted using
centering diphthongs and ae -> {ai}, oe -> {oi}.  This means a rewrite of
the orthography: {u} becomes a tense/lax high central vowel OBri {o:} ->
NBri {w}; or {ae} and {oe} are redefined, most likely as /a:/ and /o:/.
Both options are workable and not necessarily exclusive.

thoughts?

- andrew.

Andrew Smith                                  <hobbit@earthlight.co.nz>

MAN, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many
accomplishments; still owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil
and the fact that it rains.
							   - Anonymous