LL-L "Orthography" 2002.02.03 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 03.FEB.2002 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: "Andy Eagle" <andy at scots-online.org>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" [E]

From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]

> > <au> is just a 'traditional' Scots graphemeic representation of the
> > underlying phoneme pronounced variously
> > from dialect to dialect.
>
> The question is, though, is there a pattern in the variation
> that would enable us to choose <au> as opposed to <a> in the
> spellings of such words as "han(d)" and "car"?
>
> I believe there are two low, back vowels involved here in most
> dialects, but they're very similar in placement - the main
> distinction is that one is rounded and the other isn't. The
> phonetic symbols for these can be seen at the bottom right
> of my vowel placement chart at
> http://sandyfleemin.org/grammar/phonetics/vowels.asp (these
> are basic vowels - the many dialectical variants aren't
> included). While these are very close, the main difference is,
> as I said, the rounding on the higher vowel.

<sned>

Is it maybe just that in some dialects the vowels distinquishing say
'man'
from 'maun' have merged.
All the same I would still claim <au> to represent the underlying
phoneme in
some words an <a> in others on the basis that the merger hasn't occured
in
other dialects. It may confuse spelling slightly for those whose dialect
has
the merger, but is necessary in an orthography that intends to suffice
for
all Scots dialects.
Of course dialect boundaries aren't rigid so some dialects will only
have
partial mergers.

Andy Eagle

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