[Spellyans] 2013 SWF Review
Michael Everson
everson at evertype.com
Thu Apr 18 22:23:13 BST 2013
On 18 Apr 2013, at 20:00, Daniel Prohaska <daniel at ryan-prohaska.com> wrote:
> I should say the SWF does as best it can by giving ‹mynn› only, i.e. with a short vowel and no pre-occluded SWF/L variant **mydn.
Let us examine this statement.
1) SWF uses <y> in stressed monosyllables for [ɪ] and [iː] (KK *[ɪː])
2) SWF uses <nn> which usually equates to ‹dn› but in a few cases does not (i.e it is ambiguous)
3) SWF uses ‹n› always for [n]
SWF has the choice to write ‹mynn› which does give rise to erroneous pre-occlusion [ᵈn]
SWF has the choice to write ‹myn› which might invite an erroneous long [iː] (KK *[ɪː])
Which of these is worse? It's a judgement call. But since many speakers of revived Cornish pronounce ‹y› as short [ɪ] generally, an error with that vowel can often be anticipated. But we know that ‹mynn› produces an error for RLC speakers. I would say that the SWF would be better off writing ‹myn› than ‹mynn›.
1) KS uses <y> in stressed monosyllables for [ɪ]
2) KS uses <ÿ> in stressed monosyllables for [iː] (KK *[ɪː]) alternating with [eː]
3) KS uses <nn> which always equates to ‹dn›
4) SWF uses ‹n› always for [n]
KS can write ‹min› [miːn], ‹mÿn› [miːn]~[meːn], ‹myn› [mɪn], ‹mynn› [mɪᵈn]~[mɪn] and every time you see a spelling you know what the pronunciation is to be. That improved on the principles which KS inherited from the SWF.
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/
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