LL-L "Orthography" 2002.03.12 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 12.MAR.2002 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Orthography"

> From: "John M. Tait" <jmtait at wirhoose.co.uk>
> Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2002.03.06 (01) [E/S]
>
> 2. The representation of Shewa and Aitken's Vowel is a problem. I find
> the
> use of <u> as initial Shewa very odd - my pronunciation in this case
> doesn't sound like [V]. This is bound to be a problem in any orthography
> where the graphemes have exact values. There isn't the scope for the
> sort
> of dialect variation which isn't regular. How do you decide when to use
> <u> and when <i> for an unstressed vowel?
>
> And what about variation in stressed vowels - for example, I say
> ["antr at n],
> but in the NE it's - to my ears - ["Vntr at n]. The well-known tendency of
> some Central dialects to pronounce classic Scots <i> as [V], and of NE
> ones
> to pronounce classic Scots <a> as [V], raises questions about exact
> representation, in an approach which doesn't take account of the
> probability that the historical spelling represents an original
> pronunciation which has then become merged with other phonemes in
> certain dialects, but not in others.

John,

I've been checking examples of these sort of words against
the SND and I think I've made a mistake in trying to
differentiate between variant schwa-like sounds by use
of <u> instead of <i>.

Do you think it would work to write "ibút" for "aboot", "iwå"
for "awa" and suchlike, ie use "i" consistently for what's
marked invariably as a schwa in the dictionary? Although this
seems more like [V] to me, I don't think it's a difficult
thing to take on board as in dialects like mine I think people
are used to a certain amount of ambivalence between [V] and
[i]/[3].

The first vowel of "antrin" is only listed as [a] or [Q] in
the SND (the unstressed second syllable accounts for most
pronunciation variants but only through combinations of
reduction and metathesis, which I don't think need to be
addressed by an orthography). This suggests one way of
dealing with spelling variants - we already have dictionaries
that narrow down choices in their phonetic transcriptions,
could we take these as authoritative and leave anything else
to personal-dialect writers and recorders?

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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