Re: Three vowel systems (was: Brr)

John Vertical skrev:
 >> Standard Swedish has 9 vowels, possibly plus length,
 >> although the jury is chronically out on whether vowel
 >> length is phonemic or a function of stress and syllable
 >> structure/morphotactics. Many Swedish dialects add three
 >> more vowels to that system:
 >>
 >> : i   y   (u\)    u
 >> :
 >> : e   2   8       o
 >> :
 >> : E       (3\)
 >> :
 >> : (a)             Q/A
 >>
 >> Items in parentheses are the extra 'dialectal' vowels.
 >>
 >>
 >> /BP 8^)
 >
 > I knew of /3\/, but what's the deal with /u\ a/? AFAIK
 > those phones usually appear as the long variant of /8/
 > and short variant of /A/ - is there a split of some sort
 > going on?
 >
 > John Vertical

Yes, though it is hardly 'going on', but was completed at
least 1 1/2 centuries ago. Historically speaking there was
both lengthening of [a] and lowering of [&:] (before /r/)
and raising of [8] in certain contexts. There was also
backing of short [a] in certain contexts, creating a
tenuous distinction between short [a] and [A]. The long
[8:] is of rather low incidence, but fairly regular in
_du_ [d8:] 'thou'.

/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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                            -- Sam. Johnson (no rel. ;)