Re: Y not? (was: Of Haa/hhet & other matters)

I think you'll find North Walian has three y's - /@/ ,  /i/ and the
distictive Northern Welsh sound (represented in IPA by a barred lower-case
i. If you watch the mouth of a speaker producing this sound, the tongue
comes between the teeth and it looks for all the world like what you're
going to get is a /T/!
Mind you, the plethora of y's is one reason why I'm not that keen on Welsh
orthography.
Mike

> Strictly, the Welsh |y| has two uses:
> 1. 'clear' [1] (high unrounded central vowel)* - in final syllable of
> polysyllabic words, and generally in monosyllabic words (exceptions shown
> below).
> 2. 'obscure' [@] elsewhere in pollysyllabic words, and in the following
> monosyllabic words:
> yn (predicate marker); yn (in); y(r) (definite article); fy (my) - and
> occasionally in borrowed words like 'nyrs' (nurse).
>
> *in north Wales; pronounced like /i/ in the south.
> ======================================================
>



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