LL-L "Phonology" 2003.05.11 (14) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 11.May.2003 (14) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Peter J. Wright" <peterjwright at earthlink.net>
Subject: Reply to "Phonology"

Chris Ferguson wrote a lengthy and insightful description of Scots
Gaelic
phonology.

Thanks for the information, Chris!  Making the sounds themselves aren't
that
much of a problem for me, actually -- phonology was my specialization at
school.  :)  I find the vowels to resemble those of Swedish and
Norwegian,
especially the diphthong [oy], which, I have to confess, I'm still not
sure
how it's represented in the orthography.  From listening to BBC Radio
nan
Gaidheal, I've gathered that "ao" can be pronounced either [e:] or [o:],
which I attributed to dialectal divergence.  Am I correct?  Thus, I
*believe* I've heard "aosda" pronounced either ['e:sduh] or ['o:sduh],
depending on the speaker.  How would you describe dialectal splitting in
the
Gaidhealteachd?

I have both the "Teach Yourself Gaelic" by Roderick Mackinnon and the
"Colloquial Scottish Gaelic" tape course put out by Routledge by
Katherine
Spadaro and Katie Graham, which are both quite good.  However, I find
that
neither describes the highly complex vowel system adequately, one of
them
resorting to such nebulous (and confusing) descriptions as "oeu: a long
'i',
and very like French as in 'coeur', but slightly nearer to 'oo'" (and
that's
a direct quote), which I find completely baffling.  Is this [oy]?  I'd
love
to find some books out there that provide IPA-based descriptions of
Scottish
pronunciation -- they would be *really* helpful.

Finally, I was hoping you could shed some light on something: How is the
name "Domhnall" pronounced?  On the tapes I hear a nasalized "o", a
glide in
place of the "n", and *something* happening to the final "ll", but I'm
not
quite sure what.  Is it being frica/tivized like in Welsh "ll", or made
into
a "tl" as in Icelandic and Faroese?  It's hard to tell because it's very
subtle.  Questions, questions . . .

Thanks for you help!

Best regards,
Peter Wright
Nuadh Eabhraic, Nuadh Eabhraic
(New York, NY)

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

OK, guys.  So I'm a wee bit lenient here because Gaelic has contacts
with Scots and English and shares some phonological traits with Scots
and Scottish English, also because you mention Gaelic names that might
be mentioned by Scots or English speakers of Scotland.  However, please
remember that this is not a Gaelic or Celtic language list and that we
need to keep focusing on the Lowlands (Germanic) languages.  Mentioning
Gaelic or any other non-Lowlands language is fine as long as there is
relevance to and main focus on Lowlands languages and cultures.  If
there is not, you might want to consider continuing the exchanges off
the List.

I'm trying hard not to be a spoilsport, but I do have to make sure we
don't lose sight of our focus area.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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