Return of the minimal pairs

[Gabor Sandi]

> From: Robert Whiting <WHITING at CC.HELSINKI.FI>
> Reply-To: Indo-European at xkl.com
> To: <INDO-EUROPEAN at XKL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Return of the minimal pairs
> Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 14:14:06 +0300 (EET DST)

> As for 'duinhewassel', OED seems to have missed this pronunciation,
> although they have the spelling. I wouldn't be surprised that this
> comes from Chamber's which is well known for its Scottish bias. But
> the word is Gaelic in origin where initial [d] and [D] vary depending
> on the phonetic environment (external sandhi). Scots dialects can't
> really be used to define English phonology (otherwise English has to
> have a phoneme [x] as in 'loch' contrasting with 'lock').

I do not know how Scottish Gaelic has entered the discussion, or how it could
have any possible relevance.

In Scottish Gaelic, just as in Irish, the grapheme <dh> is pronounced (insofar
as it is pronounced at all, as quite often it is silent) as the voiced velar
fricative [G] in "broad" environments (i.e. next to written a, o, u), and as
the approximant [j] (like English y in yet) in "slender" environments (i.e.
next to written e, i). If you want a reference, see Mackinnon, R.: Teach
Yourself Gaelic (Hodder & Stoughton, 1971), p.1, and Calder, George: A
Gaelic Grammar (Glasgow: Gairm, 1972), p.60.

The only Celtic language that has kept the voiced interdental fricative [D] is
Welsh, which spells it <dd> . The only Welsh loanword containing this that I
can think of is "eisteddfod" (a congress of Welsh bards, according to the OED).
The OED does say that this is pronounced as /eisteDv at d/ - but I doubt that any
English speaker would pronounce the word like that except when consciously
imitating Welsh.

On the broader issue, I am with you when you wish to exclude marginal, recently
borrowed, words from the analysis of English phonology. What I don't understand
is why you wish to exclude a phoneme because its initial occurrence is limited
to a semantic subclass of words.

Best wishes,
Gabor Sandi