Re: American dialect of Brithenig

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@nova.umuc.edu>]

On Tue, 27 Jul 1999, John Cowan wrote:

> 
> 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.

Wiw Ter Mair!  Only please god they don't have to talk like stereotypical
Mrl@ndrz *here*. ;)

> 
> 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?)

Yep.  And down into eastern Duneint.  A quick lesson:

Brithenig: eo Afgar, rhui Eddes, salyd Iesu Crist, ill salwadur bon, ke es
a Ierosolem. sa es ddith ke dy san all pobl seint lla fedigen e seint llo
llyf. 

Paesan: eo Avgar, ruy l'Eddess, salud a Iesu Crist, il salwadur bon, que
es a Ierosolem.  saes theuú que thu sans al pobel seynt la vedigen e seynt
lo llyfs. 

Glastein: eo Avgar, rhuy la Eddess, salud al Iesu Crist, el saáluadur bon,
que as al Ierosolem.  saas zigud que du sanes al pobel seynn la vedixen e
seynn lo foil.  [Here ll and rh have the Kernu values hl and hr.]

Padraic.

> 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
>