American dialect of Brithenig

[John Cowan <cowan@locke.ccil.org>]

The American dialect of Brithenig is orthographically just like
the standard language, but has differences in phonology (which I
will discuss) and lexis (which I will not).  It comes in a Northern
flavor spoken in the province of New Castreleon, and a smaller
Southern flavor spoken in the province of Ter Mair.  This discussion
is pan-dialectal.

American Brithenig (AmBr) has "the same" phonology as American
English (which is not the same as American English *here*, of course).
Therefore, ll and rh are pronounced like l and r respectively.
(I believe this is also characteristic of Brithenig in Ill Paes?)
Ae oe are pronounced the same as ai oi.  The non-English diphthongs
ew iw/yw are both pronounced [ju], so "New" in "New Castreleon"
is the same in both AmBr and AmEng: [nju].

All three languages (English, Brithenig, Scots) have in the New
World adopted the "r grasseye" (uvular r).  This is generally
believed to be due to heavy French immigration in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries.  This is the distinguishing mark of
the "American accent" and was memorably described by the
Britophile novelist of the City of New Castreleon, Enrhig James,
as "a morose grinding of the back teeth".  Final consonants
which are dropped in Standard Brithenig are carefully preserved
in AmBr, including -f everywhere, -r on infinitives, and -t
on participles.  This is thought to be due to immigrant influence;
those who learned the language from book-grammars did not
drop final consonants.

All educated Americans are at least bilingual, and many are
trilingual, so the languages have influenced one another in
various ways.  Most AmEng speakers are rhotic, and the pure
vowels [e] [o] of Scots have displaced the English [ej] [@w].
The English tend to believe as a result that American English is really
Scots, but grammatically and lexically it is clearly English.
American Scots is conservative by the homeland's standards,
but I do not have details.

Note that English "gh" is still [x] *there*; this is
not a point of difference between Britain and America.

-- 
	John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan	cowan@ccil.org
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! / Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.
			-- Coleridge / Politzer