Inquiries about Scottish phonology (fwd)

[Andrew Carnie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 21:58:13 -0800
From: dch at m1.sprynet.com



I would appreciate descriptive linguistic remarks on the Skye dialect,
particularly in response to the following phonological points.

1.      What are the phonemic inventory, the lenition pairings, and the
mergers from historical Gaelic of "resonants"
/l  l'  L  L'   n  n'  N  N'    r  r'  R  R'/? For example, MacAulay
(1992)
reports the following evolution for a dialect of north Lewis:

                l       L       l'      L'
                \       /       :       :
                 \     /        :       :
                  \   /         :       :
                    L           l'      L'

(David MacAulay. "Scottish Gaelic." In <The Celtic Languages>, ed. D.
MacAulay. 1992: Cambridge)

2.      Do any Scottish dialects, but particularly Skye, realize the
nasal
mutation by nasal affricates, as does Welsh? Instrumental studies of
Welsh speakers yield a three segment sequence for each of the sounds
'ngh nh mh':  nasal voiced occlusive + nasal voiced fricative + third
segment, where the third segment may be either nasal voiceless fricative
or [h].

3.      Is the orthographic sequence 'ea' in initial syllables realized
as [e] or as [a]?

4.      Are the dialects of Barra and Skye very similar, especially in
phonology? Is Skye dialect closer to Barra's or to Lewis's?

5.      Can anybody help me obtain a photocopy of the phonology sections
of Bjornstrom's "The Dialect of Skye and Ross" in Norsk Tidsskrift for
Sprogvidenskap, 1941, Supplement Bind II? This reference is not
available thru UC libraries.

Thanks for all assistance.

Dale Chock