> Paul Bennett wrote:
>> I'm having yet another round of re-thinking about Uinlistka phonology.
>>
>> Old Norse has /y/, /2/, and /Q/.
>> A number of Algonquian languages have /iw/, /ew/, and /Aw/.
>
> Which series is simpler to pronounce is, I think, dependent upon one's
> own liguistic background. In languages that normally have [y] and [2]
> (or similar rounded front vowels), such as French or German, then I
> guess the Old Norse sounds will seem simpler (more especially so if
> one's L1 doesn't have [w]).
>
> But I was brought up long ago in West Sussex in the UK where English
> /aw/ is colloquially [Ew]. I lived for 22 years in South Wales where
> English /ju/ is pronounced [iw]. So personally I find the Algonquian
> series a good deal easier then the Old Norse /y/ and /2/. (As a Brit, I
> have no problem with [Q] :)
>
> [snip]
>> Based on that, and knowing that Uinlitska is supposed to have developed
>> among Old Norse settlers in northeastern North America, which of the
>> following seems more naturalistic:
>>
>> 1: /y/, /2/, /Q/ simplify to /iw/, /ew/, /Aw/
>>
>> 2: /iw/, /ew/, /Aw/ simplify to /y/, /2/, /Q/
>>
>
> Seems to me that either is equally naturalistic (which, I guess, doesn't
> help ;)
>
> Languages seem to go through cycles in which simple vowels tend to give
> way to diphthongs (especially, of course, if stressed), and at other
> times where diphthongs simplify to single vowels.
>
> French is a most notable example. In Old French we find a very rich
> system of falling diphthongs and, indeed, a few triphthongs which
> developed from simple vowels of Vulgar Latin. But this whole system has
> no gone. The transition from Old French to modern French has seem
> drastic reduction of the old falling diphthongs and triphthongs to
> simple vowels. A most notable one is the reduction of _eau_ /j&w/ to
> [o]. (There's one example of the falling [Qj] giving rise to the rising
> [wa] of modern French - but that is a lone example).
>
> Ray
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