Re: Gaulish phonology?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Lisa" <eris@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
> <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
> >
> > > SHORT VOWELS
> > > a - as in "cup"
> > > e - as in "fell"
> > > i - as in "pit"
> > > o - as in "rot:
> > > u - as in "foot"
> > > LONG VOWELS
> > > a: - as in "father"
> > > e: - as in "made"
> > > i: - as in "feel"
> > > o: - as in "road"
> > > u: - as in "rude"
> >
> > I think he simply means as in Latin - I don't think he's

implying

> > any diphthongal develoments.
>
> Hi Richard,
>
> I wasn't sure if he was using American English or British English

in

> his pronunciation descriptions. (Why he didn't use SAMPA, I have

no

> idea.) For instance: "a - as in "cup"" and "a: - as in "father""
> would seem to indicate Gaulish had [@] for the "short a" and [a:]

for

> the "long a", where I would have expected it to be [a] and [a:],
> respectively. I would have the same question for his description

of

> the other short vowels:
> ([@] and [a:], or [a] and [a:]?)
> [E] and [e:], or [e] and [e:]?
> [I] and [i:], or [i] and [i:]?
> [O] and [o:], or [o] and [o:]?
> [U] and [u:], or [u] and [u:]?
>
> Is he accurate?

What evidence do we have of Gaulish pronunciations? I suspect the
best evidence would come from how Gaulish placenames were borrowed
into Latin. Beyond that, I seriously doubt that we can do much
better than say 'probably the same as Latin'. The other clues would
be developments in Brythonic and possibly Goidelic. If we are
talking of highly accurate identification, which Gaulish dialect did
you have in mind?

<father> has [A:], not [a:], in the major English dialects. Many
English dialects lack [a], though RP seems to have redeveloped it -
so <man> is now [man] again rather than [m{n]. As <man> can be
[mEn] in some accents (notably Birmingham amongst English accents),
I can understand <cup> being chosen, but I know of no reason to
assume Gaulish had [@] rather than [a].

I would go for the vowels being [a], [e_o], [i], [o_o], [u], but
that tells you more about me than about Gaulish!

Richard.