[Spellyans] -ita
nicholas williams
njawilliams at gmail.com
Mon Jun 30 15:06:19 BST 2008
KK is incoherent in its spelling of words in -ita/-yta < Latin -
itat(em).
It writes <trynyta> 'trinity', <cheryta> 'charity', <dynyta> 'dignity'
with <-yta> but
<kontroversita> 'controversy', <antikwita> 'antiquity' and <awtorita>
'authority' with <-ita>.
The SWF (as exemplified in Dan's dictionary) renders the ending as <-
ita> everywhere.
I wonder whether this is wise. The vowel in -yta is invariably short.
I should prefer to write
trynyta, cheryta, dynyta, controversyta, antyqwyta, auctoryta, etc.
Otherwise we might have the following:
akwyt a! 'pay him!'
kwyt a! 'leave him!'
antikwita 'antiquity'
dibita 'pitiless'
all with [It@] but written differently. This isn't very helpful for
learners—many of whom (understandably)
found the distribution of y and i baffling in KK.
And it is not just learners who were befuddled by <i ~ y> in KK. The
editor of the KK New Testament in his introduction describes his team
of translators as 'experienced Cornish linguists'. They wrote in KK
and yet they, 'experienced' as they were, could frequently not decide
whether to write <i> or <y>.
In An Testament Nowydh we find <Symeon> Luke 2.25 but <Simeon> Acts
13:1; <Sylvanus> 2 Cor. 1:19 but <Silvanus> 1 Peter 5:12; <Sidon> Matt
11:21 but <Sydon> Mark 3:8.
Should we not be looking for a simple and coherent distribution of
these two graphs <i> and <y>?
Nicholas
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