Irish ambisyllabicity (fwd)

[Andrew Carnie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 96 08:34:22 -0500
From: Nancy Stenson <stenson at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
To: CELTLING at mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Irish ambisyllabicity (fwd)

In message  <Pine.SUN.3.91.961023092240.17573A-100000 at ling.ucsc.edu> The Celtic
Linguistics List writes:

>
> Well, here's one idea. Does Irish allow long vowels before clusters? If
> it doesn't, there might be a solution something like this: There's a
> generalization (a rule, a constraint, whatever) that consonants should be
> doubled after stressed vowels, but it is over-ridden if the preceding
> vowel is long so as to avoid having to obscure the underlying voicing
> contrast.
Actually, in some dialects at least, vowels lengthen before clusters.  For
example, in Cois Fhairrge and Connemara  /t'in'@/ 'fire'  has the plural
t'i:ntr'@xi:/.  And historically, of course there's the nonalternating
lengthening/diphthongization of vowels words like /a:rd/  'tall', /baurd/
'table', etc. There always seem to be sonorants involved in such cases,
for what that's worth.

Nancy Stenson