LL-L: "Morphophonology" LOWLANDS-L, 10.MAY.2000 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: John M. Tait [jmtait at altavista.net]
Subject: LL-L: "Morphology" LOWLANDS-L, 03.MAY.2000 (08) [E]

Ian wrote:
>
>Ulster-Scots has retained several plurals in -n, such as 'een' (eyes),
>'treen' (trees), and in fact 'oosen' (oxen). One of these also has a vowel
>change, 'shae-shuin' (shoes).

I think it's questionable whether this is a genuine vowel change - look at
the following examples.

English         Shoe    Shoes

Shetlandic              [S2:]   [S2n]
North East Scots        [Si:]   [Sin]
Central Scots           [Se:]   [SIn]

The [Se:] pronounciation of Central Scots is a regular pronunciation in
that dialect of the original /2/ phoneme, which, as the correspondences in
the other dialects show, is the final phoneme in 'shae', 'dae' and 'tae'
(adv - Eng. too) which should strictly speaking be spelt 'shui', 'dui' and
'tui'. Similarly, [I] is the regular pronunciation in Central dialects for
the same original phoneme in short positions. It is the lack of precedent
for the final <ui> spelling in Scots, and the general lack of perception
among Scots writers of the existence of this original phoneme, which lead
to the customary spellings with -AE. The impression of a vowel change is
thus largely a trick of the orthography. There has been a vowel change - in
that original /2/ has merged with /e:/ in long positions, and with /I/ in
short positions, in Central dialects; but this has nothing to do with the
formation of the plural, which would seem to be formed simply by adding
[n], as with _ee_, _een_. (Unless Ulster Scots preserves /2/ as a distinct
phoneme in either the short or long position, but not in the other.)

Re. Jim Scobbie's question, _een_ and _shuin_ definitely have short vowels
in Shetlandic. As for _treen_, this plural form doesn't exist in Shetlandic
to my knowledge - not surprisingly. As I've perhaps said on this list
before, when I was young, the word 'tree' was used of (1) a bit of wood for
stirring porridge, and (2) a pot plant!

John M. Tait.

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