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John Maidment's Blog
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Thursday 22 May, 2008
Turdus merula
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Early Irish poetry
Here is a tiny Old Irish poem I have just found. It dates from
the 8th century. I found this surprising, as it is almost
haiku-like, if you see what I mean. I was amazed to find that,
along with the epic heroic poetry, a lot of other stuff has survived and
this is much more lyrical, or comic or even downright risqué.
There is a poem by a monk complaining that his poor hand is tired of
writing. Another poem is a major grumpy fit about the onset of
winter. And one poem, by a woman writer called Iseabail Ní Mheic
Cailéin around 1500, called Listen, People of this House. This is
a very explicit hymn of praise to the...er...manly part of the household
priest!
Anyway, here is the little poem in a nice font.
The graphic, transcription and translation are mine. The photo is from
Wikimedia The title is
Modern Irish. I must admit that the transcription is a little tentative
in places. The orthography of Old Irish is stupendously weird.
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ən ɫon dʊv
int
eːn beɟ
ro leːɟ fetʲ
do rind ɡubʲ
ɡɫɑnbɯiði
focerð fɑiːðʲ
oːs ɫox ɫɑiːʝ
ɫon do xrɑiːβʲ
xarnbɯiði
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The Blackbird
The small bird
has given a whistle
from the point of a beak
bright yellow
it sends a call
above Belfast Lough
a blackbird from a branch
laden with yellow
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Friday 16 May, 2008
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μ
Scholars of Old Irish use the symbol [μ] to
represent a nasalised voiced bilabial fricative [β̃]. See, for
example, Quin, E. G. (1975) Old-Irish Workbook. Dublin: Royal
Irish Academy or Stifter, David (2006) Sendgoidelc: Old Irish for
Beginners. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. I am sure I have
seen somewhere a claim that this sound survived into Modern Irish in
some dialects, where it was spelled <mh>, but has now been replaced by [v].
Unfortunately, I can't relocate the reference at the moment.
Interestingly, I have heard at least one speaker from Ireland, or rather
a singer, who frequently uses [ṽ] when
singing English. If you can find it, listen to the song The
Last Rose of Summer sung by Máire Ní Bhraonáin of the group Clannad.
If the Celticists have got it right, and as yet I
haven't looked at the evidence, the existence of this sound in OI is
remarkable. It is the only example I know of a nasalised fricative
in contrast with its non-nasalised counterpart. OI also had [β] which could occur in exactly the same environments. Here is a minimal pair:
mo ben [mo βen] "my woman/wife" vs mo
men [mo β̃en] "my flour".
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Wednesday 14 May, 2008
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Provinces of Ireland
I
have just been on a wikigooglewander looking at the names of the
traditional provinces of Ireland: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and
Ulster. As usual on these occasions, I found something that I
hadn't even thought of asking myself about. Why the -ster
ending for three of them? One possible answer appears to be that the s
is the Norse genitive marker - the Vikings dominated large chunks of
Ireland between 800-1000 AD - and the -ter bit derives from Irish
tír meaning "country." Another possibility
is that the -ster bit derives from Old Norse staðr,
meaning
"place/territory". The derivation of the four names is:
-
Leinster: Laigin (the name of the dominant
tribe in ancient times) + s + tír / + staðr
-
Munster: Muma (the name of a Celtic
goddess) + s + tír / + staðr
-
Connacht: (the land of) the people of Conn
-
Ulster: Ulaidh (the name of the
ancient local tribe) + s + tír / + staðr
Rather surprisingly, the provinces are
called Cúige, which means "a fifth part". This is because
originally there were five of them. The fifth, Meath, occupied the
northern and western parts of what is now Leinster and merged with
Leinster in the eleventh century.
In the present County Meath lies the Hill
of Tara, Teamhair na Rí in Irish, meaning "Hill of the King".
This, supposedly, was the seat of the High King of All Ireland, although
exactly what that title meant is apparently a matter of dispute.
It seems likely that the High King's influence reached only the northern
half of the island, rather than the whole country. More on the
provinces in a later post.
Teamhair na Rí
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Sunday 11 May, 2008
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The mysteries of alveolar plosive elision
If you have ever studied the phonetics of English, or
followed classes in English pronunciation, it's a good bet that you have
come across the phenomenon of elision. Various sorts of segment
may be elided, but for the moment I am going to concentrate on the two
English alveolar plosives [t] and [d]. Let's start off with
a couple of examples. The phrase last week may be
pronounced either [lɑːst wiːk] or [lɑːs wiːk].
Old man may be either [əʊld mæn] or [əʊl
mæn]. This is exactly what we mean by the phenomenon called
alveolar plosive elision: the option to leave out a [t] or [d]
when we pronounce a word or phrase. Notice that I say option.
Elision is never obligatory.
It's clear that alveolar plosive elision has been
going on in English for a good long time. Consider the words
listen, castle, Christmas, soften, handsome. Although these words
contain the letter <t> or <d>, which suggests at one time they could be
pronounced with the relevant consonant, few, if any, native speakers of
English would produce alveolar plosives in these words, and others like
them, no matter how carefully they were speaking. The alveolar
plosives have disappeared from the pronunciation of these words, but the
letters remain in the spelling.
The question then arises: when exactly can you elide
an alveolar plosive? At first sight, this seems fairly
straightforward. Here are the conditions which must be met before
an alveolar plosive is in danger of disappearing.
-
The alveolar plosive must be surrounded by
consonants.
-
The alveolar plosive must be in the coda, not the
onset, of a syllable.
-
The following consonant must not be [h].
-
The preceding consonant must be of the same voicing
as the alveolar plosive.
If the textbook you are reading is a good one, it
should tell you also that the contracted negative n't is an
exception. The [t] may be elided in
words like can't, shouldn't, hasn't even if a vowel or [h]
follows and even though the consonant preceding the [t]
is voiced and the [t] itself is voiceless. I
should add that some, but not all, speakers seem not to like eliding
alveolar plosives before the consonants [w], [r] and [j]
Easy, huh? Wellllll....
Consider the words handle and
postal. The alveolar plosives in these should be zappable,
shoudn't they? Well, they're not! Certainly not in my speech
anyway. Consider the words hurtle and certain.
If you speak with an accent in which the [r], is pronounced, you should be
able to elide the alveolar plosive, shouldn't you? Well, you
can't. So there!
Watch this space.
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Friday 9 May, 2008
The Klallam lift the log
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Klallam
This is the result of a Google-wander. I can't
remember what I was looking for, but I ended up finding Klallam.
This is a Salishan language spoken on the north shore of the Olympic
Peninsula in Washington State and across the the Straits of Juan de Fuca
on the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island. The name Klallam,
according to the legend, is the result of a large tribal gathering at
which a trial of strength was proposed. This consisted of trying
to lift a very large log. Various tribes tried and failed and then
someone in the Klallam tribe had an attack of the smarts. They
floated the log in the river and their strongest men got in and hoisted
it on their shoulders, then carried it out and lifted it on top of the
log house. All the other tribes shouted "Klallam, Klallam!", which
means "strong people". It seems then that Klallam may be an exonym,
especially as the consonants [k] and [l] are reported to be rare in the
language of the tribe. The language is also generally called Klallam,
but the tribe's name for it is [nəxʷstʃʼajʔəˈmutsən]. So there!
In common with other Salishan languages,
Klallam has a pretty impressive array of rare-(ish) consonants.
Here is the consonant inventory:
|
bilabial |
alveolar |
palato-alveolar |
palatal |
velar |
labialised velar |
uvular |
labialised uvular |
glottal |
plosive |
p |
t |
|
|
k |
kʷ |
q |
qʷ |
ʔ |
affricate |
|
ts |
tʃ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
fricative |
|
s |
ʃ |
|
x |
xʷ |
χ |
χʷ |
h |
ejective stop |
pʼ |
tʼ |
|
|
kʼ |
kʷʼ |
qʼ |
qʷʼ |
|
ejective affricate |
|
tsʼ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
lateral fricative |
|
ɬ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ejective lateral
affricate |
|
tɬʼ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
nasal |
m |
n |
|
|
|
|
ɴ |
|
|
approximant |
(w) |
|
|
j |
(w) |
|
|
|
|
lateral |
|
l |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
glottalised nasal |
mʔ |
nʔ |
|
|
|
|
ɴʔ |
|
|
glottalised
approximant |
(wʔ) |
|
|
jʔ |
(wʔ) |
|
|
|
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I have never been quite sure why native American languages are said
to have glottalised sonorants as unitary segments rather than as
sequences. Maybe someone can enlighten me. From the examples
I have heard it sounds as if the glottal stop follows the sonorant with
some concomitant creaky voice during the sonorant itself.
The vowel system is simple, but defective, as it lacks a
mid back vowel to pair with [e]. However, [e] is rare in the
language and, I suppose, could have been introduced by borrowings from a
neighbour language.
|
front |
central |
back |
close |
i |
|
u |
mid |
e |
ə |
|
open |
|
a |
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Again like many other Salishan languages, Klallam allows
some wondrously complex consonant clusters. How about the word for floor
[ˈsxʷɬχatʃən], or
dancer's belt [ˈsxʷqʼqʼikʷən]?
Aren't they real doozies? BTW, I am not at all sure where to put the
stress mark in stuff like that! Maybe this is a good case for using the
US method of marking stress by putting an acute accent over the stressed
vowel.
There is quite a lot of stuff online about Klallam, including sound
files and a few video clips. Unfortunately, not all the sounds play. And be warned
that the transcriptions used are not pure IPA. Here are a couple
of links:
University of North Texas
Language Geek
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Saturday 3 May, 2008
ðæn
ðən
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A question of stranding
Héctor Ortiz writes again from Chile:
In a sentence like
Who is she younger than?
I feel THAN is stranded and takes a strong form. Why?
1. Is it functioning as a preposition? My grammar colleagues say it
isn’t.
2. Is it a conjunction which becomes strong by analogy with a prep?
3. Is it the only conj. which can undergo this process?
My reply:
You are right in thinking that THAN is stranded in
your sentence. According to all the dictionaries I have looked at
THAN is classed as a conjunction. I guess it's pretty rare for a
conj. to be stranded. The only other example I can think of at the
moment is very similar to your sentence:
Who is she as old as?
The second AS is stranded and must be strong.
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Thursday 24 April, 2008
Bugh Worm
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Celtic flip-flops
Many of you probably know that all modern
Celtic languages have initial consonant mutations. These affect
mainly the manner of articulation and the voicing of some word-initial
consonants in the language, mostly, but not exclusively the stop
consonants. The mutations are not simply a phonetic phenomenon and
mostly the trigger for the mutations is lexical or syntactic. For
instance the word a [ə] in Irish
can mean either his or her. When it means his it
causes a mutation in the initial consonant of the following noun.
For instance, mac [mɒk] ("son"),
but a mhac [ə wɒk] ("his son").
When a means her no mutation takes place. So
"her son" is a mac [ə mɒk].
In the two Celtic languages with which I am
most familiar, namely Irish and Cornish, there is a curious and somewhat
perverse phenomenon involving mutations, whereby what happens with
masculine nouns is exactly the opposite (well nearly) of what happens
with feminine nouns. Take for example the situation with the
singular definite article in Irish. The table shows the forms for
masc. and fem. singular def. art for the "common" case (nominative,
accusative and dative) and also for the genitive case.
|
Common |
Genitive |
Masculine |
an |
an |
Feminine |
an |
na |
The forms in red cause mutation, the ones in blue do
not.
I have just (re-)discovered the fact that a very similar thing goes
on in Cornish, but this time with adjectives following a noun. A
singular feminine noun triggers a mutation in a following adjective:
gorm [gorm] ("dun"), but bugh worm [byx worm] ("dun cow").
Singular masculine nouns do not trigger a mutation: tarow gorm [ˈtarɔʊ
ɡorm] ("dun bull"). In the plural the
situation is that feminine nouns do NOT trigger a mutation, but
masculine nouns referring to persons do. So: bughes gorm [ˈbyxez
gorm] ("dun cows"), teweri gorm [ˈterewi
ɡorm] ("dun bulls"), but, if there be such things,
tiogyon worm [tiˈoɡjon worm] ("dun
farmers").
This phenomenon also seems to extend to the second elements
of compound nouns. So: kador (f) vregh [ˈkador
ˈvrex] ("armchair"), but kadoryow bregh [ˈkadorjɔʊ
ˈbrex] ("armchairs").
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Wednesday 23 April, 2008
Memorial to Michael Joseph & Thomas Flamank
St Keverne Church
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An Gof
Yesterday was largely devoted to a trip to St Keverne,
a small village on the Lizard Peninsula, not far from Goonhilly Down
Satellite Earth Station and about 25 miles from Penzance. These
days St Keverne is well-known for Roskilly's icecream, which is
manufactured on a large dairy farm called Tregellast Barton on the
outskirts of the village.
The plaque set into the wall of the churchyard is
evidence of St Keverne's other great claim to fame. The
translation is as follows:
In
memory of
Michael Joseph
the smith
and
Thomas Flamank
leaders of the Cornish host
which marched to London
and suffered vengeance there
June 1497
"They shall have names
perpetual and fame permanent
and immortal"
Erected by Mebyon Kernow
1966
The rebellion was sparked by Henry VII's imposition
of heavy taxes to fund a campaign against the Scots. The Cornish,
especially the tinners, were incensed. They did not see why they
should pay for the English to fight the Scots, the more so because the
Cornish Stannary Parliament had been granted rights by Edward I
exempting them from such taxes.
Joseph and Flamank, a lawyer from Bodmin, gathered an
army 15,000 strong and marched on London. They eventually made
their final camp on Blackheath, but, after giving stiff resistance to
the royal forces, were defeated at the Battle of Deptford Bridge on June
17. An Gof escaped, but was soon recaptured at Greenwich.
Flamank was captured on the battlefield. Both were executed at
Tyburn on June 27. The quote on the plaque is an adaptation of
what were reputedly An Gof's words before his execution.
Mebyon Kernow means "Sons of Cornwall" and is the
name of the Cornish Nationalist political party.
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Tuesday 16 April, 2008
A painting of Richard Trevithick
by John Linnell
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Trevithick
It seems that Cornwall has caught festival fever.
Here in Penzance we have the mid-summer festival - Golowan - and the
mid-winter festival - Montol. In St Just there is Lafrowda in July
and of course there is the Helston Furry Dance on May 8. Now, on
April 26 we have Trevithick Day in Camborne, celebrating the town's most
famous son, Richard Trevithick, who was born in 1771 (not on April
26, but April 13) at Tregajorran near Illogan, not far from Camborne.
He was the son of a "captain" at the nearby Dolcoath Mine, and was a
great sportsman and wrestler in his youth.
Trevithick is best known for his invention of the
high-pressure steam engine, which was a considerable advance on the
low-pressure variety developed by James Watt in 1769. Trevithick
worked on his engine in the 1790s and on Christmas Eve 1801 demonstrated
his steam-powered "road engine", called the The Puffing Devil, by
transporting several men up Camborne Hill. Three days later, the
engine was tested again, but it broke down and was left while the
operators repaired to a nearby inn for a meal. The water boiled
off and the whole machine was burnt out.
In 1808 Trevithick publicised his locomotive building
expertise by designing a steam engine called "Catch Me Who Can" and
exhibiting this in a "steam circus" just south of Euston Station.
The site of this has now been identified. It is currently occupied by
the Chadwick Building at UCL. Unfortunately, the locomotive proved
too heavy for the tracks it ran on and the exhibition was not a great
success. Richard built no more locomotives.
Trevithick's invention was much more important for
the mining industry, however. It proved much more efficient a
method of pumping water out of the mines than its fore-runners and was
also used to power mills to crush ore. Trevithick was a restless
and adventurous man. In 1816, just after the birth of his sixth
child, he swanned off to South America, where he acted as a mining
consultant in Peru. Amongst other adventures he served in the army
of Simon Bolivar, was nearly drowned twice, was nearly eaten by an
alligator and also crossed the Nicaraguan isthmus on foot.
When he arrived back in Cornwall in 1827, he was
penniless. The only reason that he got back at all was that he was
lucky enough to meet Robert Stephenson, the railway pioneer, in
Cartegena. Stephenson gave Trevithick £50 to aid his passage home.
He didn't stick around for long. In the early 1830s he once gain
left his long-suffering wife, Jane, and went to London to work for an
engineering firm called J E Hall. He worked there for about a
year, but he fell ill and died in 1833 in Dartford, Kent. He was
destitute again and his funeral expenses were paid for by a collection
by his colleagues at Hall's works. He was buried in an unmarked
grave.
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Wednesday 9 April, 2008
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Picking my brains
Héctor Ortiz writes, saying he wants to pick my
brains. This is very foolhardy of him, I think, because he'll
have to find them first. Anyway, here goes.... He writes:
What
is it that makes ‘was’ a strong form in
(1) THE PROBLEM WAS I DIDN’T HAVE ANY
MONEY.
as opposed to a weak form in
(2) THE PROBLEM WAS THAT I DIDN’T HAVE ANY MONEY.
I know ‘was’ is stranded in the first sentence. Why? What has moved
where? Is it because it derives from ‘I didn’t have any money was the
problem’? Does ‘that’ in the 2nd make all the difference?
Instinctively, I feel there are 2 intonation groups in 1 and only 1 in
2. Can a strong form for ‘was’ be used in 2?
Gracias por tu ayuda.
I replied as follows:
The problem is that there are quite a few
possibilities and combinations of weak/strong form, one or two
IPS and various nucleus placements. In what follows I use
underlining for nucleus placement, | for IP boundary and
red for a strong form. Here are
some of the possibilities:
1. The problem was
| I didn't have any money.
2. The problem was | that I
didn't have any money.
3. The problem was | I
didn't have any money.
4. The problem was | that I
didn't have any money.
5. The problem was | I didn't have any money.
6. The problem was | that I didn't have any money.
7. The problem was I didn't
have any money.
8. The problem was that I
didn't have any money.
9. The problem was I didn't have any money.
10. The problem was that I didn't have any money.
Of course, for (1) and (2) was must be
strong. For these, cf The thing is, The
question is, etc. As far as I am concerned none of
these ten versions is impossible. I don't think it is a matter
of stranding for any of them. I can't see that there has been
any movement or deletion of anything. So my answer really is
that the presence or absence of that makes no difference.
De nada!
What do others think?
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