Re: New Brithenig words, part Deux.

andrew wrote:


> /a/ and /a:/ merge in Romance languages

Yes.  When the old quantity distinctions were lost, /a/ did not
develop a quality distinction.  But see below.

> Loans from English occur only when one of these two
> sources agree.

Or when Andrew blesses the bungling of his collaborators
(c'est moi), which is why "cave" is cafurn and not cawern.

>>Possibly Brithenig has two phonemes /i/ and /I/ both written <i>?
>>
> Yes, it does.  <i> is /i/ when stressed and /I/ when unstressed.  I
> think that rule can be found under the alphabet page.

Actually, there is only one phoneme /i/, as in all Romance langs.
But it surfaces as [i] under stress, [I] elsewhere.  Brithenig
unlike W. has relentless vowel reduction, more even than
Portuguese; /a e i o u/ when not stressed become /@ E I O U/.

--
There is / one art             || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less              || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things             || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness           \\ -- Piet Hein