[Spellyans] tavas in early Middle Cornish

[Daniel Prohaska]

Nicholas wrote:
"So the SWF has kelyn 'puppies', but melin 'mill', though they rhyme
perfectly."
 
Yes, this <i> ~ <y> distribution in the SWF is unfortunate in places,
especially in unstressed syllables. I would like to see this changed in the
SWF. My preference would be write <i> where both RMC and RLC share an i-type
vowel ([i?], [?]) and spell <y> only in RMC where RLC has <e> (with the
exception of word-final position where <y> should be permitted as in
trad.C). 
 
"On the other hand the SWF cannot distinguish cost 'coast' from cost 'cost',
nor can it tell pur 'snot' from pur 'pure'." 
 
Up till now I had <pour> for 'snot' in my dictionary as RLC has [u?] and
Nicholas, you have <pu?r> in UCR as did Nance in UC, but Lhuyd writes <pu?r>
which points towards [p?r], which would have to be SWF *porr or *purr. KK
has <pur> [py?r] which, unless it ca be shown to be mistaken, would give SWF
<pur> M [py?r], L [pi?r]. There's also Anglo-Cornish dialect <poor> 'rotten,
diseased' but I don't know if it's connected. Latin <pituitarius> is a bit
of a stretch. Do you know the etymology of Lhuyd's <pu?r>?
 
Yes, I too would like to be able to distinguish 'cost' from 'coast',
'causeway' from 'vagina'. Also SWF <bronn ~ brodn> 'breast' [br?n(?)] ~
[br?dn], from <bronn ~ brodn> 'rushes' [br?n(?)] ~ [br?dn]. 
Dan 
 
  _____  

From: spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net [mailto:spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net]

On Behalf Of nicholas williams
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 6:14 PM
To: Standard Cornish discussion list
Subject: Re: [Spellyans] tavas in early Middle Cornish
 
"So the SWF has kelyn 'puppies', but melin 'mill', though they rhyme
perfectly. The SWF has kegin 'kitchen' but megyn 'we smoke' though they are
an exact rhyme. On the other hand the SWF cannot distinguish cost 'coast'
from cost 'cost', nor can it tell pur 'snot' from pur 'pure'. 
Etymological spellings are unhelpful.
Nicholas"
 
"On 2011 Gor 13, at 17:04, Michael Everson wrote:
The "reason" is claimed to be "etymological reconstruction" but as often as
not it is just a reflection of distinctions made in Welsh or in Breton,
imposed on Cornish by someone who admired those distinctions."


 
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