Re: Umlauts (was Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad)
| From: | Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, October 24, 2003, 18:48 |
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On Thursday, October 23, 2003, at 09:51 , John Cowan wrote:
> Ray Brown scripsit:
[snip]
> There is one language -- which one it is escapes me --
> that regularly places the diaeresis on the first vowel.
Are you thinking of Welsh words like 'gweddïo' (to pray)
and 'copïau (copies)?
It's quite logical. It was the Hellenist grammarians that
fist used the sign; ancient Greek had only falling diphthongs,
and if the second vowel was not to be the coda of a diphthong
but to retain its full sound, it had the trema placed over it.
In Welsh 'i' before another vowel is pronounced [j]; where
such an 'i' is to retain its full sound it has the trema (or
diaeresis) over it.
> JRRT's manuscripts also do this unsystematically,
Welsh influence?
Ray
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