[Spellyans] -ita

[Michael Everson]

At 18:20 +0100 2008-06-30, nicholas williams wrote:
>KS uses y for [I] everywhere except
>in derivatives of monosyllables in <i>, e.g. gwir, gwiryoneth; tir, tiryow

The SWF does this.

>and also where a final long i occurs in a stressed syllable despit, constrin.

This is a fine distinction; it is not unrelated 
to our distinction of <ia> from <ya>. 
Pragmatically we will have to be careful laying 
out the rules, because there are overlaps.

(1) Initially <i> is [I]; initial [i:] would be 
written <î> (modulo <ÿs/ës>). This rule increases 
the visibility of the letter <i> considerably -- 
a concern many RLC users have expressed to us.

(2) In monosyllables and their derivatives <i> is 
[i:] and <y> is [I] (modulo <bÿs>/<bës>. When 
unstressed, these <i> letters are shortened to 
[I].

(3) In polysyllables not derived from 
monosyllables, the sound is almost invariably 
[I]. In final unstressed position, <y> will be 
[I]~[@] and <i> will indiate that the vowel is 
[i:] and that the syllable is stressed 
(crodo'dil, pl. croco'dilys; con'strin, ppl 
con'strinys). Elsewhere in medial position <y> 
will be used since the vowel is almost always 
[I]; in those rarer instances where the vowel is 
[i:], it can be marked with the circumflex <î> 
(bîbel (if not beybel) sîra, personal names).

We will deal with final position a bit later 
(please not right away). In the meantime, could 
you please think very carefully about (3) above 
and see if there are any pitfalls there.
-- 
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com