Re: 1. YAESR

On Monday, April 18, 2005, at 11:00 , Joe wrote:
[snip]
> Well, Welsh and English have a pleasantly similar phonology, with the
> odd exception (Welsh doesn't have [tS] or [dZ], or [z], English doesn't
> have [K] or [r_h], or [x] natively). I spelt [tS] and [dZ] as well as I
> could, within the Welsh orthography (I didn't make it up, of course.
> See Welsh 'jwg'(jug) and 'garej'(garage),
Yep - nowadays, all but the purists recognized both the letter |j| and the
sound [dZ] as Welsh. The position of [S] is more problematic; in English
borrowings it is simply |s| if final, e.g. _ffres_ and, of course [tS] is
even more problematic  :)

[snip]
>  And <z> is a letter so alien to Welsh
Note quite - in south Walian one does occasionally come across _zw^_ (z +
circumflexed-w) "zoo" for the more standard _sw^_    :)

[snip]

> to <u>, and turning into [I] to match the English phonology.
Which is the way short |i| is pronounced in Welsh, as well as English   :)

> Apart from
> that, I'd say that it's pretty faithful.
Um - the diphthongs are a bit out also. For example, being used to actual
Welsh _beic_ [b@jk] = 'bike' I found it a bit odd for English _bake_
(which in 'Welsh English' is pronounced [be:k]) - your transcription made
me read the thing with a London accent   :)

But I do agree that of all the orthographies used on our island, Welsh is
the most nearly phonemic - and, as a satire, it was funny.
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On Monday, April 18, 2005, at 11:50 , Tim May wrote:
[snip]

> (You pronounce "one" [wQn]?)
I can't speak for Joe, but one does hear [wQn] from some Brit speakers.
But I, being born & bred in Sussex, say [wVn]. But the spelling _wyn_
would suggest [ujn] in Welsh, as in _wyneb_ "face, surface". _wysg_
"direction", _wyth_ 'eight" etc.


Ray
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Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
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as of the reason."      [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]

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