[Spellyans] The Pronounciation of 'r' in traditional Cornish

Michael Everson everson at evertype.com
Mon Mar 27 17:44:44 BST 2017


On 27 Mar 2017, at 17:20, Harry Hawkey <bendyfrog at live.com> wrote:

> Yes, it's very frustrating that he doesn't really spend much time explaining his system in AB. I find it a bit confusing too (e.g. he says â is pronounced as in 'mane', presumably [ɛ:], but uses this to spell many words like brâs in Welsh which surely can't have ever had [ɛ:] ?)

We read /a/ as [æː] and [æ] in stressed syllables, though in a class of words there is a dialect alternation brâs [bɹɒːz]~[bɹæːz]. Lhuyd would probably have heard [mɛːn] in early Modern English but he might not have been able to distinguish this from [mæːn].

Michael Everson



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