--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Steve Bett" <stbett@...> wrote:

> According to you the traditional writing system implies that ale and
> day should be pronounced with a different vowel. Can you be any
> more precise?
>
> Most dictionary pronunciation guides for GA indicate the same vowel
> Webster: Al, dA. (ál, dá). An Australian dictionary might
> indicate two different vowels: Al and dI (ál dí) /eIL daI/
> You did not indicate what the vowel should be according to the
> historical orthography and Peter didn't indicate how he pronounced
> these words other than to say that they did not have the same vowel.

I don't actually know of any dialects that preserve the *old*
difference. However, if you look at the etymolgical notes, you will
soon see that the difference between words spelt with -ai- (such as
'pail', 'bail', 'main' from OE pægel, OF bail, OE mægen or ON megenn,
megn, megin) and those spelt -a_e (such as 'pale', 'bale', 'mane' from
OF pal; OF pal(l)e; OE balu; MDu bale; OE manu). 'Bale' as in 'bale
water out' is a rare example of confusion - it started as 'bail', but
'bale' appeared in the 17th century.

The -a_e family has very few examples in open syllables because the OE
precursor would have a short vowel in stressed syllables, which I
don't think was actually allowed. (An OE long <a>, unless it was
shortened, as in 'Stanton', became open long <o> - so OE sta:n >
Mod.E. _stone_ - 'nay' & 'no' are a Norse / English doublet, like
'raise' and 'rear'.) The examples I can think of feel Scottish,
though I note that Chambers describes 'hae' as *mostly* Scots.
Likewise, 'brae' is Northern English as well as Scots - the change of
long <a> to long <o> (open in Middle English) did not happen in
Northern English.

T.O. also distinguishes the difference between Middle English open and
close long 'e', as <ea> and <ee>. (OE precursors of <ea> are
lengthened short 'e', long 'æ' and long 'ea'; of <ee> long 'e' and
long 'eo'.) In native words, e_e is equivalent to <ea>.

Richard.