Re: Chain shifts & transformed u's, was: Blandness

On Mon, 9 Apr 2001, Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:

> * Dutch has /y/ < /u/ (right?)
I don't think so: Dutch has both /y/ and /u/ (vuur /vyr/ "fire" and
voer /vur/ "fodder") but /y/ alternates with /i/ (vier /vir/ =
archaic and dialectal "vuur", though it also means "four"), not with
/u/.

(I should perhaps have marked the vowels long; vowels followed by
/r/ are slightly lengthened, not really long, and I can't manage a
single elevated dot for half-long in ASCII)

   Irina

--
           Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
irina@valdyas.org (myself)     http://www.valdyas.org/irina/valdyas

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