LL-L "Orthography" 2002.03.08 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 08.MAR.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "John M. Tait" <jmtait at wirhoose.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2002.02.27 (03) [E]

Andy wrote:

>More research is need on <ea> either /i/ or /e/ depending on Dialect  I
>still can't predict /i/ or /e/ in many words I write <ea>.
>though before /r/ its usually /e/ e.g. learn, earn etc but hear, fear etc.
>/i/
>Native speakers get this right any way so is such variation really a
>problem?

It is a problem in Scots as a whole - the problem being that, generally
speaking (though there are exceptions) Central dialects _tend_ to pronounce
most BEAT words as [i], and therefore there is no conflict between the
English and the Scots pronunciation of a Central Scots speaker with regard
to most of these words. However, in areas where most such words are
pronounced [e], there is a conflict between the Scots and the English
pronunciation, and a word written with <ea> will automatically be
pronounced with the familiar English [i] pronunciation, in spite of the
fact that this is not the native Scots pronunciation in that area.

So 'some hae meat an canna eat' will be pronounced with [i] sounds by most
Scots in the NE, even though the NE Scots pronunciations are [met] and [et].

In other words, native speakers don't get it right - they tend to follow
the familiar English pronunciations of any word which is spelt as English,
even within a Scots context. The effect of retaining the <ea> spelling is
therefore to subliminally standardise Scots in the direction of Central
pronunciations, where the pronunciation of BEAT words is - usually - the
same as in SSE.

Another problem is that the variations are not consistent. In Shetland,
almost all such words are pronounced [e]; but in the NE most are pronounced
[i], with a small number - such as <eat>, <meat> which are pronounced [e].

>Using <ea> leaves the words recognisable an thus aids legibility which of
>course makes sense if I want people to understand what I've written.

Yes, but it doesn't suggest the correct regional pronunciations of the
words to Scots from areas where the underlying historical phoneme is not
pronounced [i].

Typically, I don't have any answer to this problem - I can only point out
what the problem is!

John M. Tait.

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