Fw: LL-L: "Morphology" LOWLANDS-L, 03.MAY.2000 (05) [E]

[Ian James Parsley]

----- Original Message -----
From: Scobbie, Jim <JScobbie at QMUC.ac.uk>
To: 'Ian James Parsley ' <parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 3:14 PM
Subject: RE: LL-L: "Morphology" LOWLANDS-L, 03.MAY.2000 (05) [E]


Hi,

I just happened to have time to read some lowlands postings - usually they
sit in a guilty pile of unread stuff. Anyway, I'm afraid I'm going to
continue my tradition of lurking then asking questions.

I'm very interested in how the irregular plurals fit in with vowel duration.
I know how difficult it is to introspect or make a decision on such forms,
but do any speakers feel that

treen
een
shuin

have long or short vowels? Monomorphemic ones "ought to" be short, but
these? If you  mail me individually I will tally results and give a score!
That way you won't be influenced by other speakers. Let me know your dialect
too. And of course, if you know any literature on this question, or on vowel
duration before other suffixed, I'd be delighted to hear about it.

 Jim Scobbie

Ian James Parsley wrote:

>Ulster-Scots has retained several plurals in -n, such as 'een' (eyes),
>'treen' (trees), and in fact 'oosen' (oxen). One of these also has a
>vowel
>change, 'shae-shuin' (shoes).