Re: Silent E

Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...> wrote:

>
> > Date:    Fri, 5 Oct 2001 09:35:20 +0200
> > From:    Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
> > Subject: Re: Silent E
>
> [...]
>
> > In my memory, broad consonnants are just pronounced normally, while
> slender
> > consonnants are palatalised (IIRC). But of course, palatalisation has
> produced
> > sound changes and some broad-slender couples are not completely
> transparent
> > (IIRC, the slender pronunciation of 's' is /h/, and broad 'l' is
> velarized,
> > while slender 'l' is just a plain /l/). Each consonnant can be broad (non-
> > palatalized) or slender (palatalized). Now in Irish the orthography shows
> it
> > without ambiguity, but with a strange system, since it's vowels which mark
> > broadness and slenderness for consonnants! In short, Irish orthography
> states
> > that the vowels a, o and u are broad, while i and e are slender. A broad
> > consonnant must have only broad vowels touching it, while a slender
> consonnant
> > must have only slender vowels touching it. But in speech, any vowel can
> occur
> > with broad and slender consonnants. To reconcile those two facts, Irish is
> > obliged to use di- or trigraphs to mark simple vowels, depending whether
> the
> > consonnants around it are broad or slender. So each vowel sound has up to
> four
> > ways to be written. For instance, IIRC, /a/ is simply written 'a' when
> both
> > consonnants around it are broad. But if the previous consonnant is broad
> and
> > the next one is slender, /a/ must be written 'ai' (since a slender
> consonnant
> > can only have a slender vowel touching it), and /a/ between two slender
> > consonnants is written 'eai' (or 'iai', I don't remember exactly). Some
> > digraphs are quite strange: /e/ between two broad consonnants is written
> 'ao'.
> > You just have to learn the possible digraphs and trigraphs (put them in a
> > table, it's easier), at least the system is unambiguous. For instance, in
> the
> > example you give, I can tell that in 'Leathan', 'l' is slender, 'th' and
> 'n'
> > are broad. The second vowel is /a/, but I'm not sure whether the first
> vowel
> > is /a/ or /e/ because I don't remember this digraph. In the second word
> 'Caol',
> > I know that 'c' and 'l' are both broad and the vowel is /e/. Just learn :)
> ..
>
> I've been looking for pages about Gaelic for few times and I have even a
> book dealing with it. However none of them said that there is just such a
> strict correspondence like /a/ between broad and slender is ALWAYS (or at
> least almost always) 'ai', /a/ between slender and broad is 'ea'. Can I find
> the full set of such a pairs somewhere in the net? Or maybe you could recall
> it and post? After all maybe I'll try again with Gaelic?
Irish is my second language (sort of, I haven't had any need to use Irish in years
despite living here all my life) and I can say that you're sort of picking the
whole thing up the wrong way.

Vowels clusters themselves are neither broad or slender, the story's just a little different.

There are two sets of vowels in Irish orthography: the `broad' vowels (`a', `o' &
`u') and the `slender' (`e' & `i'). Consonants and consonant clusters have
either a `broad' quality or a `slender' quality. Their quality is determined by
the vowels surrounding them.

Vowels are like brackets. If you have a vowel of one type on one side of a consonant
cluster, you have to have one of the same type on the other side.

I'll use the old spelling of my name as an example: O Gaibhtheachain. The consonant
clusters `bhth' and `n' are surrounded by *slender* vowels and so have a
*slender* quality: `ibhthe' and `in'. The consonant clusters `g' and `ch' are
surrounded by *broad* consonants and so have a *broad* quality: `ga' and
`acha'.

The vowel digraphs `ea' and `ai' are single sounds. The two letters in them are of
two different types and both are needed to indicate the quality of the
consonants surrounding them. That's one of the reasons why you'll find long
clusters of vowels in words in Irish.

I hope I've explained myself properly without confusing you.

K.

--
Keith Gaughan                         In the land of the blind, the
kmgaughan@eircom.net                    one-eyed man is a heretic
http://www.geocities.com/keithgaughan/ [Temporarily]

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