[Spellyans] tavas in early Middle Cornish

[Daniel Prohaska]

Michael, 
You asked: “What is this ɐ? Do you think LC lowered schwa?”
 
Well, it’s a possibility, at least. This is not relevant phonologically, the contrast /ə/ (< old a, e, o) and /ɪ/ (< old i, y, u) was maintained, though I think it likely that /ɪ/ centralised and lowered towards [ə] while /ə/ was pushed further down to [ɐ]. Note that /ɪ/ is frequently spelt <e> in closed syllables in LC, and <y, e> word-finally, whereas /ə/ appears mainly as <a>. In a more advanced form of Late Cornish I would assume possible phonetic realisation of /ɪ/ : /ə/ as [ə] : [ɐ]. This is highly speculative of course. 
Dan
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net [mailto:spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net] 
On Behalf Of Michael Everson
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 2:35 PM
To: Standard Cornish discussion list
Subject: Re: [Spellyans] tavas in early Middle Cornish
 
“On 13 Jul 2011, at 13:15, Daniel Prohaska wrote:
 
> As for the unstressed <a> in <tavas> (BK, SA, Hawke, N.Boson, J.Boson, Pryce), we have the OC form <tauot> (VC) which I take to mean */ˈtavɔd/ or */ˈtavœd/. The expected development would be */ˈtavɛz/ > */ˈtavəz/ > LC */ˈtævɐz/.
 
What is this ɐ? Do you think LC lowered schwa?”
 
 
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