LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 28.JAN.2000 (02) [E/German]

Fri Jan 28 15:29:35 UTC 2000

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From: "Ian James Parsley" <parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 27.JAN.2000 (06) [E]

Ron,

Yes, what you say is correct, the phonological rule from Gaelic has
passed
into many Scottish dialects of English, and is universal in southern
Ireland
and SW Ulster (i.e. it is only NOT observed in the far NE of Ireland).
However, its observance is very unusual in Ulster-Scots (given that it
is
precisely in the NE of Ireland that Ulster-Scots is spoken).

Best wishes,
-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"

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From: G Halliday [G.Halliday at xtra.co.nz]
Subject: LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 27.JAN.2000 (06) [E]

> From:  "Ian James Parsley" <parsleyij at yahoo.com>
> Subject: LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 27.JAN.2000 (05) [E]

> Some members newer to this may be thinking that the occasional Irish and
> Scottish insertion is words such as "kiln" or "film" (often written in
Irish
> dialect "fillum") would be an example of the insertion you talk of.
However,
> what little phonological knowledge I have leads me to believe that, in
fact,
> this is merely a case of a vowel being inserting due to the pronunciation
of
> the preceding /l/, which in most of Ireland and parts of Scotland is
always
> pronounced light.

Apart from the some forms of Highland English, Scots /l/ is dark in all
position - one of the distinguishing differences between Ireland and
Scotland. (Irish /l/ is typically light.)

> From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
> Subject: Phonology

> Yes, Ian, Irish and Scottish Gaelic are good examples for this particular
type
> of vowel epenthesis (insertion), namely where two consonants coincide at
the
> end of the syllable and the first of these is not a fricative.  (This
happens
> with /r/ also, e.g., Irish _gorm_ ['gOr at m] ~ ['gOrUm] 'blue')  Like in
Dutch
> and Afrikaans, it is not represented orthographically.  From what you said
I
> understand that this phonological rule has been transferred to Irish and
> Scottish English (and Scots?).  Is that correct?

This is the so-called svarabhakti vowel (in traditional Gaelic descriptions)
now often called epenthetic. It perhaps isn't shown in spelling because
although the result is two syllables, phonologically they are treated as
one. i.e. "gorm" is  inflected as a monosyllabic adjective. In Scots
probably only rC clusters routinely generate epenthesis and mostly
only -rm - although there are older cases with lC as in <film> , this sounds
old-fashioned/Irish to me and I can't think of any cases with nC epenthesis.
Gaelic dialects differ according to whether the vowel is schwa or a copy of
the original. In Scots as some dialects also show some vowel harmony -
with -nae for example - it would be interesting to have some comments on
what the svarabhakti vowel is in different Scots dialects here. I mostly can
think of examples with a preceding /a/ warm, harm and can't decide what
vowel is involved as it changes according to tempo.

Metathesis is often considered a feature of Scots and if this is true this
svarabhakti vowel may be one of the causes. Another may be a conspiracy to
maintain syllable length against a background of vowel shortening in Scots -
there's fleein a draigin

Geordie Halliday

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From: Pepijn Hendriks [pepijnh at bigfoot.com]
Subject: LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 27.JAN.2000 (05) [E]

Ron,

[ On metathesis of liquids in Slavonic ]

>One might argue that there was an intermediate stage in the process: vowel
>insertion (e.g., _melkó_ > *_melokó_) and that then the first vowel came
to be
>dropped (*_melokó_ > _mlokó_).  I assume that this would depend on stress
>development in the individual >languages.

To the best of my knowledge, it has not. I'm quoting Herbert Bräuer in his
_Slavische Sprachwissenschaft: I, Einleitung, Lautlehre_ (Berlin, 1961), as
he put it more concisely and precisely than I ever could:

"Die Abneigung des Urslavischen gegen geschlossene Silben [...] wird im
allgemeinen als die Ursache dafür angesehen, daß die Liquidaverbindungen
ihre ursprüngliche Gestalt nicht bewahrt haben. Diese Tendenz wirkte ja aus
der urslav. Zeit in die gemeinslav. Zeit hinein[.] [...] Die Umgestaltung
der alten Liquidaverbindungen gehört wegen der unterschiedlichen Behandlung
und ihrer Ergebnisse in die Übergangszeit vom Gemeinslavischen in die
einzelsprachliche Periode.
Mit Ausnahme des Ostslavischen haben die meisten slav. Sprachen die
ursprüngliche Lautfolge Vokal+Liquida umgestellt (=Liquidametathese), im
Südlslavischen mit zusätzlicher Dehnung des Vokals. Diese Dehnung findet
man auch im C^echischen und Slovakischen, während sie die übrigen
Westslavischen Sprachen nicht kennen. [...] Das Ostslavische nimmt eine
Sonderstellung ein, insofern als er die ursprüngliche Liquidaverbindung
durch Entwicklung eines 2. Vokals zum sg. *Vollaut* (r[ussisch]
*Polnoglasie*), geführt hat[.]"
(Bräuer 1961:79-80)

-Pepijn

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