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

["Raymond A. Brown" <raybrown@macline.co.uk>]

At 4:03 pm +1200 12/5/98, Andrew Smith wrote:
>On Mon, 11 May 1998, Raymond A. Brown wrote:
>
>> Yep - I would not do so, either.  I think Brithenig {u} would probably have
>> followed the same path as in French, i.e. become high, rounded front vowel
>> [y]; it is not improbable that rounded mid front vowels would have
>> developed also (Breton has such a vowel).
>>
>In Brithenig the high back vowel was fronted and then unrounded, for
>example yn, one, a, an, from u:num.  /U/ and /o:/ merged as {u}.  Would a
>tense/lax front rounded vowel be needed in this system?

Certainly. As I understand it, the lax~tense opposition is not phonemic in
Brithening but conditioned by lack of stress & stress respectively.  In
such a system this would surely apply to all vowels, whatever their origin.

I'd forgotten that original /y/ was unrounded to /i/ in Brithening, as in
south Walian Welsh and modern Greek.

>>
>> Yeah - I think three possibilities for {ae} and {oe}
>> i. The diphthongs fall together with {ai} and {oi} as /ai/ & /oi/
>>respectively;
>> ii. They developed (as in certain South Walian dialects) to /a:/ and /o:/;
>> iii. Their development was not uniform in Brithenig, some dialects merging
>> them with /ai/ and /oi/, others developing "long diphthongs" like Dutch
>> {aai} and {ooi}. i.e. /a:i/ and /o:i/, while others developed simply the
>> long vowels /a:/ and /o:/.
>>
>> The third is the one I'd favor, with /a:i/ & /o:i/ perhaps being looked
>> upon as "official".  Similar long diphthongs also occurred in ancient
>>
>This is workable.

Yep - I think all three developments are possible. I speak only from
theory; only Brithenig's discover can ascertain what 'actually' happened
;-)

Raifun.


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