Re: New Brithenig words, part Deux.

On Tue, 29 May 2001, John Cowan <cowan@...> wrote :

> Raymond Brown scripsit:
>> It is a Romancelang - what I find odd is that it has so many Welsh
>> features, including purely orthographic conventions like {f} = /v/ which,
>> personally, I think would be unlikely in a Romancelang.
> Even one being written by British scribes?  Why should their handwriting
> problems ("v" becoming illegible) be any different because they were writing
> low Latin rather than Celtic?
Indeed, all celtic writing systems (except possibly ogham) are Latin based,
Old Irish is spelled according to the way the Welsh (mis)pronounced Latin.
The reason for <ff> = /f/ and <f> = /v/ in modern Welsh is clear if you
look at middle Welsh where the symbol <u> ~ <v> could stand for /y/ /u/ /w/
/v/ and occasionally /f/. Writing /f/ as <ff> everywhere (originally it was
used only finally) freed up <f> to consistently represent /v/ which in turn
eased the logjam around <u>. After the very regular spelling of Mod. W.,
Middle Welsh comes as a bit of a shock, some written words are ambiguous
if taken out of context.

Keith