Re: Breathanach

[Geoff Eddy <geoff@morven.compulink.co.uk>]

Hi John and Padraig,

I've decided to reply to your previous emails together to save $$$.
First, about John's suggestions:

> Good point.  Well, EI I IO could fall together as a high central
> vowel like i^/a^ (pronounced the same) in Romanian.

I.e. the same sound as represented by U in North Welsh, or (according to
some sources) AO in Scots Gaelic. [Could be an interesting dialect
difference...]

> > At present I'm considering a vowel system with
> > seven vowels, five short vowels and two diphthongs in stressed
> > syllables, and six vowels in unstressed syllables.
> 
> Sounds awful complicated.

Now that I think about it, it's a compromise between the Irish and Scots
Gaelic vowel systems, although this may change in the light of some
recent suggestions. Currently the long vowels develop from the loss of
vocalised consonants [bh dh gh mh] as indicated in a stray note on the
webpage; the stressed short vowels correspond to their long counterparts
except that IA UA are notional short vowels corresponding to the opener
(or closer - I can't remember offhand) varieties of long E O.

I also said:

> > Finally, one of my main problems with Breathanach has always been
> > knowing how much I'm allowed to make up.

and so on; your replies have reassured me that I've been more or less on
the right track all along in trying to create something derived from
Latin but sounding Q-Celtic. Graiche! [Breathanach for "thanks", made up
on the spot.]

As for the document about Irish transcriptions, it's attached with this
email. I intended to amend it to include Scots Gaelic pronunciations
too, but they're a sizeable headache. If anybody wants them, though,
I'll put something together.

Reagha'irde,

Geoff
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