Dorothy (Doireann) Milne: Irish Lenition & Orthographic Depth

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

>From: Dorothy Milne <dmilne at morgan.ucs.mun.ca>
>X-Sender: dmilne at plato.ucs.mun.ca
>To: CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>Subject: Brian Doyle's project: Irish Lenition & Orthographic Depth

Dear Brian -

   This is an interesting project.
   I have a few comments below ...
>
>
>>  Modern Irish orthography is often described as simplified. However,
>>  considering the one-to-one grapheme/phoneme principle in the Orthographic
>>  Depth Hypothesis, it strikes me that the method of representing lenition in
>>  modern Irish orthography (i.e., a posterior H) might not be as "simple" as
>>  the traditional method of the "buailte" or dot. Furthermore, certain lenited
>>  consonants (e.g., ch, sh, th) might be more liable to transfer of (English)
>>  L1 grapheme/phoneme correspondences than their traditional correspondents.
>
    This is an interesting theory to test.  It makes intuitive sense.

    One countervailing point I might mention is that I, in fact, have
    slightly _more_ trouble reading the old texts with the buailte ...
    partly because I learned the modern h-system first, but also because
    my eye seems to _miss_ the little dot a lot ... it's as if the
    buailte-dot is too subtle a signal for my eye to pick up .. whereas
    the  -h- is more easily seen.

    Perhaps if a brand-new learner were taught this to begin with the
    dot would be more readily seen ... though one of the things I have
    noticed with my students is that it helps to have a really obvious
    _fada_  to get students to note the difference between an -i-
    and a -i/- ... they just don't see the accent. So, this is an
    effect you might want to test for.  Make the buailte's really
    obvious (?).


>>  Therefore, my proposal involves an experiment with two subject groups of L2
>>  Irish learners with no previous background in Irish. The control group would
>>  be instructed with materials using modern Irish orthography. The experiment
>>  group with materials using modern (i.e., simplified) spelling but with
>>  lenition represented by the dot.
>
    I'm glad you make this point - since a large part of the difficulty
    that people have in going from the old to the new script (or vice
    versa) is all those letters that got taken out of the words during
    spelling reform!
>
>>  At the end of the instruction period (as
>>  yet undetermined), a proficiency test designed to measure low-level,
>>  intraword processing would be administered and a quantitative analysis
>>  performed.
>
    What do you mean by 'intraword processing' and how would you test it?

     Do you mean seeing if the students are _pronouncing_ the consonant
     correctly (lenited vs base form .. i.e.  b-dot as a 'w' or as a 'v'
     rather than as a 'b'  ???   or 'b-dot a' as a 'w'  and
     'b-dot e' as a 'v' ??

     If so, would you test them orally, or ask them to write down the
     sound of the consonant ?

     It is, of course, much harder for a student to master the
     pronunciation in an _oral_ test than in a written test ... the
     latter giving a person more time to figure out alternatives,
     block out unlikelies, play a probabilities game.

     Also - it might vary in how you taught this. If you taught it
     orally - with phonetic cue cards, for example - you might find
     the opposite - that the oral test would work better for the
     students.

     I have done quite a bit of teaching/testing in this area with my
     students.  It probably shouldn't surprise me but it does .. how
     slowly the students master these differences, even with teaching
     directed to it.
>
>>  I'd be curious to hear feedback on these ideas, as well as recommended
>>  literature, from those who are so inclined. Although this is only a term
>>  project, my hope would be to develop this into a proposal for a master's
>>  thesis.
>
     It is a very interesting project and I wish you well with it.

     A related problem is one that I have been working on - and I gave
     two papers on it at conferences last year ... my question is how to
     best teach the spelling system ... and do methods that are based on
     linguistic principles more successful than rote learning. I have
     developed teaching materials on this.

     It is interesting that so few Irish/Scottish Gaelic teachers have
     worked on this, since learning the orthography is such a stumbling
     block for students, especially adult learners,

     Best wishes,        Doireann
                         Memorial University
                         St.John's, NL

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