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Re: Old English & Welsh X-Sampa?

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Sunday, October 17, 2004, 18:12
Rodlox wrote:

> this may sound odd -- but is there a website telling the X-Sampa values for >Old English and Welsh? > >
Old English is pretty much how you'd expect. The odd letters are æ, þ and ð. The latter two are /T/, pronounced [D] in between vowels or voiced sounds. <æ> is /&/, naturally enough. The rest pretty much are X-Sampa, with a few major exceptions: <sc> is [S] <cg> is [dZ] <c> is usually [k], but [tS] before/between front vowels similarly, <g> is normally [g], but [j] before/between front vowels and [G] between back vowels. <ea> is sometimes pronounced [ea], as you'd expect, but also [&a] <ie> was probably originally [ie], but by the later period, was [y]. All fricatives are voiced between vowels or voiced consonants. In other positions, they vary dialectally. Of course, these are only reconstructed pronunciations. We don't actually know how they were pronounced. Welsh. Well, Welsh is more interesting. There are, of course, 7 vowels: <a>, <e>, <i>, <o>, <u>, <w>, and <y>, in order. The first four are fairly simple. As in X-sampa, I think (with length depending on position). <u> is [i] in the South and [i\] in the North. Apparently it was orignally [u\]. <w> is [u] <y> is quite complicated. In syllables other than the last, it's pronounced [@]. Otherwise as <u>. There are, of course, exceptions.(eg. 'y' - 'the' [@]). Now, Consonants. <b> - [b] <c> - [k] <ch> - [x] or [X] <d> - [d] <dd> - [D] <f> - [v] <ff> - [f] <g> - [g] <h> - [h] <l> - [l] <ll> - [K] <m> - [m] <n> - [n] <ng> - [N] <p> - [p] <ph> - [f] <r> - [r] <rh> - Usually identical to [r], I think. I'm rather unsure. <s> - [s] <t> - [t] <th> - [T] And yes, those are all single letters, or considered so. I'm not 100% sure. Ray Brown, or, if he's still signed up, Dan Jones will know better than me.

Replies

Rodlox <rodlox@...>
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>