LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 26.OCT.1999 (05) [E/S]

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From: Andrew Eagle [K27 at compuserve.com]
Subject: Phonology [S/E]

I'm after a few descriptions of some vowels and diphthongs.
These are from Ulster Scots. Descriptions (examples of words with these
sounds) would be preferred in English, German or French, or if unavailable,
in any related language.

/@u/ @ = Schwa in 'rowe', 'knowe' and 'fower'

/ipa306.e/ Ipa 306. = Open O in 'boy', 'moylie' (a hornless cow) and
assumedly in 'noise' 'ploy, 'foy' and the name 'Boid'

/ipa305.e/ ipa 305. = Cursive A in  'five', 'mine' adj., 'pie' and 'tire'

/ipa325./ (Ash Digraph) in 'bag'

/e@/ (schwa-glide) in 'hame', 'lade' and 'face'

Any help would be much appreciated.

Andy

----------

From: Andrew Eagle [K27 at compuserve.com]
Subject: Phonology [S/E]

Sandy wrat:

>Andy, ye seem tae hae the maist o this weel thocht oot aareddy, sae thir's
>juist supportin remerks...

>> A thocht it micht cuid be seemilar tae the 'rules' ahint the
pronunciation
>> /s/ or /z/ for final <s> in plurals, cuttie an  genitive forms wi <'s>
or
>> <s'>.
>> The pronunciation /s/ for ordinar kythes efter /f/, /k/, /p/, /t/,
/THETA/
>> an /x/.
>> eg. laifs, wifes, wife's, lochs an threaps etc.
>> The pronunciation /z/ for ordinar kythes in plurals endin wi <es> an
efter
>> a vouel soond or /b/, /d/, /g/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /r/, /v/, /ETH/ an /ENG/.
>> eg. dous, haunds, steams, gie's, his, hers an thairs etc.

>The'r a simple rule ahint this (that A dout ye'v aarredy merkit) - the
final
>"s" isna vyced iff the consonant afore it's no vyced aither.

Weel! Thon's certies a mair semple wey tae pit it. No! A didna think on it
;-)

Here some mair anent /s/ an /z/ tho A dinna think it'll hae ocht tae dae wi
the abuin.

Fae p324 o the Edinburgh History

"Some of the Scots consonantantal alterations ... are those which involve
voicing and fricativising contrasts. ...Scots speakers tend to devoice
obstruents and voice those which are devoiced in the 'standard' language.

Sylvester Douglas...observes how Scots vernacular speakers use [s]
fricatives in items like: damsel, resign, possess, preside, president,
residence while voiced [z] fricatives are regularly produced in: debase,
raze, erase, palace, buse, precise, profuse, design, nuisance.

Robertson too bears witness...in his pairs arrows/arose, arrass, harrows,
bruise/Bruce, cease/seas, deseased/deceased, Jews/juice and many others."

Mynd tae tak tent o the Scots pronounciation o thae Inglis spellins.
Aa thon haed tae dae wi pronounciation in the 19t yearhunder. A dinna
expect tae hear muckle o thon the nou tho.

Andy

--------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Phonology

Andy,

The descriptions ...

> Sylvester Douglas...observes how Scots vernacular speakers use [s]
> fricatives in items like: damsel, resign, possess, preside, president,
> residence while voiced [z] fricatives are regularly produced in: debase,
> raze, erase, palace, buse, precise, profuse, design, nuisance.

> Robertson too bears witness...in his pairs arrows/arose, arrass, harrows,
> bruise/Bruce, cease/seas, deseased/deceased, Jews/juice and many others."

... lead me to assume that I may have been on the right track suspecting that
we are dealing with phonemic/underlying distinctions.  Especially the pairs
Robertson lists seem to show that we are not dealing with complementary
distribution, which is not to say that one phoneme or the the other does not
predominate in certain environments.  What's important is that there does not
seem to be a hard and fast rule.

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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