[Spellyans] Late Cornish adaptations

Owen Cook owen.e.cook at gmail.com
Thu Jul 31 13:46:44 BST 2008


I'm curious to hear what list members think of the following
adaptations of the SWF for Late Cornish.

* <ei> in words like hei, crei, chei has, if I remember rightly, been
accepted on this list as being within the bounds of authentic
traditional usage. Will KS recommend it, alongside <y>? And for whom
(i.e. only RLC users)?

* <oa> in words like broas, gwloan, cloav. I don't think I have heard
any discussion on this list about these items at all. One incarnation
of KS marked such words (for both RLC and RMC users) as brâs, gwlân,
clâv. (Perhaps <å> might be useful so that there can be no confusion
with <â> to indicate irregular length...?) The spelling 'broas' is
authentic, I think (alongside 'braus' and 'braos' and various other
permutations) but 'cloav' etc look strange to me.

* <ow> in words like own 'correct'. I have never cared much for
showing the <ew~ow> alternation explicitly in writing, because (1) it
seems redundant: as far as I know, our <ew> words always become /ow/
in LC, and (2) it clashes with <ow> = /u:/ in words like Jowan,
Kernowek, lowarth. For example, clowes does not have /u:/, but /ow/.

In all of these cases, it appears to me that the SWF has chosen to
ignore the opportunity to devise umbrella graphs, leaving us with a
rather clumsier system than we might have had otherwise. Any opinions?

Agas gwas euvel,
~~Owen




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