Re: American dialect of Brithenig

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

On Tue, 27 Jul 1999, John Cowan wrote:

> 
> Padraic Brown wrote:
> 
> > Wiw Ter Mair!  Only please god they don't have to talk like stereotypical
> > Mrl@ndrz *here*. ;)
> 
> Hmm.  Perhaps I should add that in Ter Mair, all unstressed
> vowels (not only /a/) tend to [@]?

:P I'm not entirely certain (it's not what I speak, so I can't really
say).  A couple quitessential examples are 'mrl@nd, 'bal@mr and '@jSnsIdi. 
These all seem to be Eastern Maryland forms.  Central Maryland (closer to
home) _supposedly_ has the almost as bad 'worSINtn (all /aS/ become
/orS/), but I've only ever heard it from one man from out-of-state, and
one actual Washingtonian.  Of course, I don't say it _that way_ either. :)
All phonetic values approximate; your phonemes may vary. 

> 
> Anyway, why the soft mutation in "Wiw"?

Well, John, I chalk that up to the despicable state of education in the
Colonies, particularly here in the Midatlantic Boondocks.  Nobody teaches
proper Brithenig any more: it's all sloppy dialect and popular speech
propagated by Moving Pictures and such.

Padraic.

> 
> -- 
> 	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
>