LL-L "Orthography" 2002.01.27 (02) [E/S]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 27.JAN.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "John M. Tait" <jmtait at altavista.net>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2002.01.24 (04) [E]

Sandy wrote:

>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.

But in ither dialects, the main differ micht be lenth, or front/back, or
thare micht be nae differ ava, at laest in some environments.

Catford, in his seminal 'Vowel Systems of Scots Dialects' (Transactions
of the Philological Society, 1957) shaws at Scots vowel systems can
reinge frae as few as 8 (pairts o Wast Central) ti as monie as 12
(Shetland; pairts o Perthshire an Angus, an the Sooth Wast.) Maist o
Central Scotland haes 9. (This is no coontin Shewa an Aitken's Vowel, an
is foondit on a analysis o vowels afore final /t/)

The maximum 12-vowel system - wi Catford's examples, but my notation
foondit on SAMPA, - is:

/i/ - beet
/e+/ - beat
/e-/ - bait
/E/ - met
/a/ - fat
/A/ - faut
/O/ - cot
/o/ - coat
/V/ - but
/u/ - aboot
/I/ - bit
/Y/ - buit

The notation is braid - no phonetic, cause the pronunciation differs wi
dialects. For example, the differ I'v shawn atween /e-/ an /e+/ (implyin
lowered an raised) is juist for sinderin's sake - it wadna necessar be
the actual phonetic differ in onie dialect at dis sinder thae twa. Whit
I'v written /A/ is aften [Q] in Central an Sooth dialects; an Catford
actually classified the vowel I'v written as /O/ alang wi /A/ as A(2).

(Ti this we coud add [@], Shewa, an [3], Aitken's vowel. But the abuin
micht be eneuch for a phonemic inventory in stresst syllables.)

Ither inventories differs. The CSD haes ae vowel less - thay miss oot
/O/ - an Paul Johnston, in a inventory foondit on reflexes o historical
phonemes, includes the historical MATE class o words, at can be sindered
aither frae BEAT class or frae BAIT class, tho I dinna ken aff-haund gin
it's ivver sindered frae baith i the same dialect.

In Catford's analysis, thir vowels merges as follaes:

In some dialects, /e-/ an /e+/ is sayed the same.
In some, /a/ an /A/ is the same.
In some, /O/ an /o/ is the same.
In some, /I/ an /Y/ is the same.

(Merk at he disna mention the North Aest merger o /Y/ an /i/, nor the
Central Scots mergers o BEAT class words wi BEET classs,  an BUIT class
wi BAIT class whan lang - e.g. <puir> = [pe:r])

This taks fower vowels aff the twal-vowel inventory, giein the meenimum
acht-vowel system - whit Catford caas the 'Basic' system:

i               u
e       I       o
E               V
        a

Houaniver, bi 'basic' Catford juist means 'meenimum', an he represents
the ither vowels as bein eekit in ti this system. Anither wey o leukin
at it is at the maximum systems represents the original vowel system, at
the ithers haes been reduced frae bi mergers. This is easy seen i the
case o the /Y/ vowel, whaur UI merges wi /i/ or wi /I/ an /e:/ in maist
dialects. It seems ti me, than, at gin we'r leukin for a inventory o
Scots vowels ti suit a 'virtual hinnerleid' or canonical langage, it
shoud be the maximum ane. This can be fund in the Catford system wi the
addeetion o the MATE class, as uised bi Johnston. It's no easy
representit, but it's somethin like this:

Front                                   Back

i                                       u
e+
e       Y       I                       o
e-
E                               V       O

        a                               A

Again, this disna shaw [3] an [@].

Examples:

My Spellins     My Symbol       Examples        Some Typical
Pronunciations (SAMPA)

ee, ie          i               beet            i
ei, ae          e+              heid, baet      i, e+, e
a-e             e               mate            i, e, e-, E
ai (ae final)   e-              bait            e, E
e               E               met             E
a               a               fat             a, A
au              A               faut            A, Q
o               O               cot             O, o
oa              o               coat            o
oo, ou          u               dour, oot       u~}
u               V               cut             V
i               I               bit             I, 3
ui              Y               buit, puir      2, y, i, I, e


Again, this is wi'oot Shewa an the Aitken vowel, at micht need ti be
addit for practical ettles, an disna shaw lenth. Probably nae actual
dialect haes aa three /e/ vowels - e'en the maximum anes mixters at
laest twa o thaim thegither. I hinna pitten in onie lenth merks, cause,
atho lenth is uisually no phonemic in Scots, pairs like my notation o
/e+/ (BEAT) an /e/(MATE), an /e-/(BAIT) an /E/ (BET) can be sindered bi
lenth in some dialects, sae ti shaw lenth merks wadna shaw if thay war
signeeficant or no.

(I hinna teckelt the common e/E variation - in words like _fairm/ferm_
cause I'v nivver seen onie description o't, an sae wad be sweir ti say
muckle aboot it. It wadna be a merger oniewey, cause aa dialects haes
baith at laest ae /e/ an ae /E/ phoneme.)

Here the e+ an e- is juist aff-luif ettles at shawin the BEAT an BAIT
classes, leavin /e/ for the MATE class. (In maist Central dialects, ye
coud than say at /e+/ merges wi /i/ an /e-/ wi /e/, makkin conceptual
sense e'en gin it's no phonetically accurate.) Maist o the symbols is
juist roch - e.g. /u/ is aften IPA barred u - SAMPA [}] - an /A/, like
Sandy is pyntin oot, is aften roondit ti /Q/.

The vowel at I'v written /O/ - the COT vowel - merges wi /o/ in maist
Central dialects, an this laeds fowk frae thareaboot (e.g. Billy Kay in
his The Mither Tongue) ti regaird it as a English affectation. But
Johnston shaws at the'r a disteenction atween COT an COAT type words in
monie Scots dialects - "However, there are dialects on all four sides of
the Central Belt which still keep the distinction intact and have an A2
vowel." The disteenction micht be [o]/[o:] or somethin like that, but
for a phonemic transcription o Scots as a hale, /O/ dis as weel as
oniething.

This wad mak a underlyin vowel inventory correspondin ti Catford's an
Johnston's analyses. I think this is mair or less whit Derrick McClure
uised in his auld recommends for Scots spellin - I hinna a copy o't, for
a peety.

>
>While there are dialects (quite close to mine) where the
>rounding is _always_ applied, there are others (such as my
>own) where the choice of rounding seems to correspond quite
>well with the general run of traditional spellings. The
>unrounded form is apparent in our pronunciations of "car" and
>"han(d)", but words like "cauld" and "auld" and "waa" are
>consistently rounded. This suggests to me that spellings like
>"caur" and "haun" actually derive from the differences between
>the _English_ /a/ sound and the Scots equivalent - the Scots
>equivalent being so much closer to the rounded /Q:/ that writers
>write them in an attempt to show the difference between Scots
>and English, rather than between Scots phonemes. If this is the
>case, then the spellings "han(d)" and "car" could be said to be
>better spellings.

>
>It's a subtle distinction, but not necessarily unimportant. It's
>clearly what Margaret was referring to when she says that "haun"
>seems too "strong" a spelling. It's the fact that it's different
>from the English /a:/ and yet not quite the Scots /Q:/.

Is it different frae the SSD realisation o English /a:/? In ither words,
wad a Scots speaker frae your airt say 'hand' different whan he's
speakin Scots frae whan he's speakin English? I say 'hand' the same in
English, Scots an Shetlandic - approx [hA:nd]. The vowel is baith faurer
back an langer nor the vowel in, e.g. cat [kat].
>
>I believe there are also dialects where the rounding isn't
>applied even to words like "cauld" and "auld", though. Might
>this be due to the influence of a relatively recent Gaelic
>substrate? Dialects of Scots which have the much more front
>or central /a/ such as you hear in English "father" are stated
>in the SND to be due to direct Gaelic influence - presumably
>of the Highland "Fat is tat you say?" variety of Scots (now
>perhaps rarely heard, due to Highlanders changing over to
>English?).

Whit wey duis Shetlandic hae [a], than? Coud be frae the Norse, I
suppose.

(I'm a bittie suspeecious o wytin the Gaelic - seems ti me ti be a Aunt
Sally, whiles. The war a airticle I read at wytit the want o _thir_ an
_thae_ in Northern dialects ti the Gaelic, but whit wey wad Shetlandic
no hae thaim, than?  I can haurdly think ye coud wyte that ti the Norse
- Auld Norse haes demonstratives for the plural, cases an aa.

CSD haes the follaein:

Modern Scots            Middle Scots            Early Scots     e.g.

/a /                    /a/                     /a/             cat,
cran, lass
/A/                     /a:/                    /au/            saw,
cause
                                                /al/            salt,
ball

But Johnston writes /A/ for the Auld Scots vowel in 'cat'. The important
pynt, tho, is at the'r twa underlyin phonemes. Ye coud write thaim as
/A/ an /Q/, or as /a/ an /A/, but the disteenction hauds (tho we'r apt
ti get raivelt gin I think at the symbol /A/ is the ane at's roondit ti
/Q/ in maist Central dialects, an ye think it's the ane at's unroondit
in maist Central dialects! ) I tend ti spell AU whaur I say [a:] or [A:]
in Shetlandic, an A whaur I say [a], assumin at my length disteenction
reflects the middle Scots disteenction shawn i the CSD tablie abuin. But
the'r still the question o non-phonemic lenthenin, at micht mak /a/
merge wi /A:/ in some environments.

Here, the spellin is probably a haundier notation nor IPA/SAMPA. Sae ye
coud say at the'r twa underlyin soonds:

A - like in cat, lassie, etc.
AU - like in faut, saw, baa, etc.

Aa the ither variations can mibbie be accoontit for bi mergers an
transfers. In some Northern dialects, thay'r aa unroondit, an the main
distinction is lenth (and/or A is front or central an AU is back.) In
ithers, A is unroondit an AU is roondit. In ithers, the'r apparently nae
distinction atween the twa. Aa thir differs is nae dout prone ti differ
dependin on environment - e.g. some dialects micht hae roondin in some
environments but no in ithers, ithers micht hae a distinction in some
environments but no in ithers, etc - sae nae dout the'll be dialects wi
[a], [A] an [Q], whaur [A] is a allophone o /a/ in some environments,
but o /A/ in ithers. Finndin oot aboot this wad tak a fortnicht wi the
Linguistic Atlas of Scotland, vol 3.

(In spellin, I wad suggest, the'r a tendency ti uise the AU spellin
whaur a follaein <d> is missed oot - sae <hand> ti <haun> raither nor
<han>, at ye haurdly ivver see written.)

This disna answer the question o chuisin whit wey ti spell indiveedual
words like 'haund', but it raises the question o the inventory o Scots
vowels. The inventory on yer wabsteid, Sandy, seems ti hae ten vowels,
no coontin [@], or [3] an [2], at's allophones o ithers (for the sake o
airgument, oniewey - I dinna richtly ken the status o Aitken's Vowel).
It seems ti be a typical Central Scots 9-vowel system wi the addeetion o
/y/ (at I'v been writin /Y/). For an underlyin pattern - raither nor a
pronunciation guide - I wad say ye wad need ti pit in /e+/, /e-/ an /O/,
an tak awa /2/ (cause, like ye say, the differ is no phonemic in onie
dialect). I wad suggest, tae, at it wad be clearer ti uise /a/ an /A/
for the twa 'a' soonds, cause this wad evite the impression at the
distinction aye depends on roondin.

Again, the English spellin is (uisually) a better guide ti the source o
the sindrie '/e/' soonds - AI, A-E, EA - cause it shaws thair etymology.
(It's faur frae reliable, tho.)

This is juist me thinkin wi my fingers (better nor my heid, I daursay!)
an gettin cairit awa as uisual. But I dout I maun be awed
tippence-ha'penny bi nou!

Here endeth the haivers,

John M. Tait.

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