Re: Digraph

At 11:10 pm -0800 30/3/01, Mark Hutchinson wrote:
>Can anyone suggest a good digraph to represent /Z/  (as in pleaSure)?
>I need one that looks vaguely Welsh...
>Thanks
>
>'hutchies'
>
>Andalath-oi i-phailén! [Iéraith]
>Ghe'o mpodag pa' che'! [Khâche']
>Yeses kéthes!          [Elé]
Which is vaguely Welsh?

The Iéraith example could well be 100% Welsh orthography, except for the
acute accent.   But the _Gh_ and, especially, the _mp_ of Khâche' is
distinctly un-Welsh; and the use of _y_ and _k_ in Elé is not Welsh, of
course.

Now, if you want it to be as Welsh as possible, then it's difficult.  Welsh
has no /z/ or, indeed, [z] and certainly no /Z/.  It does have [S] which is
spelled {si} before a vowel, e.g. siwgr (sugar).  It was once [sj] in north
Wales, but is these bilingual days, I think the English [S] is now fairly
general; but, arguably, it can be regarded phonemically as /sj/.

If all three examples are regarded as demonstrations of "vaguely Welsh",
then I see nothing wrong with {zh} = /Z/.  Certainly the Elé example could
pass for Breton ( the Khâche' example couldn't) and Breton does have {zh}
(tho not for /Z/, which it spells as {j}  :)

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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