Svarabhakti or The Helping Vowel - Eachdraidh nam mùthaidhean

Susanharris 19:11, 9 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-09T19:11:22Z

Susanharris 04:34, 8 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-08T04:34:50Z

Susanharris 04:27, 8 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-08T04:27:17Z

Akerbeltz: /* What does it look like? */

2013-08-07T11:30:58Z

What does it look like?

Susanharris 05:10, 7 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-07T05:10:36Z

Susanharris 05:07, 7 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-07T05:07:05Z

Susanharris 05:05, 7 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-07T05:05:36Z

Susanharris 04:15, 7 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-07T04:15:43Z

Susanharris 03:51, 7 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-07T03:51:49Z

Susanharris 03:39, 7 dhen Lùnastal 2013

2013-08-07T03:39:30Z

@@ Loidhne 3: / Loidhne 3: @@
 Departing from xenologomania (the excessive love of foreign words), we have the English term ''helping vowel'' and the Gaelic term <span style="color: #008000;">fuaimreag-chuideachaidh</span>. In other words, we're going to talk about those odd extra vowels that you get in Gaelic words like <span style="color: #008000;">gorm</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">dearg</span>.
-#First question: Do all Gaelic speakers do this? Yes
+#First question: Do all Gaelic speakers do this? Yes.
 #Second question: Do they all do the same thing? Silly question, of course not!

@@ Loidhne 86: / Loidhne 86: @@
 Now what was that I said about exceptions?  Well, it's not too tricky. Most dialects don't like the [ɛCɛ] (C stands for any consonant) sequences, so they produce [ɛCa], for example, <span style="color: #008000;">dearg</span> [dʲɛrag]. The other exceptions are slender consonant clusters where the second vowel is generally [i] and are not a repeat of the first eg <span style="color: #008000;">tairbh</span> [tɛrʲiv]. The latter does not apply to most Hebridean dialects. So, it's really up to you what you want to do. In general, people seem to find the [i] variant easier to say.
-And I can tell you're an attentive audience because I can see scores of people scratching their heads, thinking of words like <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu /gLasəxu/, calpa</span> /kaLabə/, and <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span> /miəLxu/. <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> is easy, it's just one of those strange exceptions that every language produces. <span style="color: #008000;">Calpa</span> is interesting because it derives from the earlier <span style="color: #6600CC;">colbthach</span> [kɔLɔbhəx] that had the voiced stop but /h/ caused the voiced /b/ to devoice to a voiceless /b/. And <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span> /miəLxu/ doesn't have the helping vowel because you don't get the helping vowel after long vowels or diphthongs.
+And I can tell you're an attentive audience because I can see scores of people scratching their heads, thinking of words like <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> /gLasəxu/, <span style="color: #008000;">calpa</span> /kaLabə/, and <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span> /miəLxu/. <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> is easy, it's just one of those strange exceptions that every language produces. <span style="color: #008000;">Calpa</span> is interesting because it derives from the earlier <span style="color: #6600CC;">colbthach</span> [kɔLɔbhəx] that had the voiced stop but /h/ caused the voiced /b/ to devoice to a voiceless /b/. And <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span> /miəLxu/ doesn't have the helping vowel because you don't get the helping vowel after long vowels or diphthongs.
 ==And, of course, everywhere?==

@@ Loidhne 86: / Loidhne 86: @@
 Now what was that I said about exceptions?  Well, it's not too tricky. Most dialects don't like the [ɛCɛ] (C stands for any consonant) sequences, so they produce [ɛCa], for example, <span style="color: #008000;">dearg</span> [dʲɛrag]. The other exceptions are slender consonant clusters where the second vowel is generally [i] and are not a repeat of the first eg <span style="color: #008000;">tairbh</span> [tɛrʲiv]. The latter does not apply to most Hebridean dialects. So, it's really up to you what you want to do. In general, people seem to find the [i] variant easier to say.
-And I can tell you're an attentive audience because I can see scores of people scratching their heads, thinking of words like <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu, calpa</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span>. <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> is easy, it's just one of those strange exceptions that every language produces. <span style="color: #008000;">Calpa</span> is interesting but easy to explain because it derives from an earlier <span style="color: #008000;">colbthach</span>, which had the voiced stop.
+And I can tell you're an attentive audience because I can see scores of people scratching their heads, thinking of words like <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu /gLasəxu/, calpa</span> /kaLabə/, and <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span> /miəLxu/. <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> is easy, it's just one of those strange exceptions that every language produces. <span style="color: #008000;">Calpa</span> is interesting because it derives from the earlier <span style="color: #6600CC;">colbthach</span> [kɔLɔbhəx] that had the voiced stop but /h/ caused the voiced /b/ to devoice to a voiceless /b/. And <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span> /miəLxu/ doesn't have the helping vowel because you don't get the helping vowel after long vowels or diphthongs.
 ==And, of course, everywhere?==

@@ Loidhne 11: / Loidhne 11: @@
 The rule in a nutshell is:
-{| style="width: 20%;" border="0" align="left"
+Ø → Vₓ/VC₁ _____ C₂
 Or, before you clobber me: If, in the stressed syllable of a word, you get two consonants, one of which is, or used to be, voiced, stick in the extra vowel as long as the two consonants are not homo-organic.

@@ Loidhne 92: / Loidhne 92: @@
 Now what was that I said about exceptions?  Well, it's not too tricky. Most dialects don't like the [ɛCɛ] (C stands for any consonant) sequences, so they produce [ɛCa], for example, <span style="color: #008000;">dearg</span> [dʲɛrag]. The other exceptions are slender consonant clusters where the second vowel is generally [i] and are not a repeat of the first eg <span style="color: #008000;">tairbh</span> [tɛrʲiv]. The latter does not apply to most Hebridean dialects. So, it's really up to you what you want to do. In general, people seem to find the [i] variant easier to say.
-And I can tell you're an attentive audience because I can see scores of people scratching their heads, thinking of words like <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu, calpa</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span>. <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> is easy, it's just one of those strange exceptions every language throws out. <span style="color: #008000;">Calpa</span> is interesting but easy to explain because it derives from an earlier <span style="color: #008000;">colbthach</span>, which had the voiced stop.
+And I can tell you're an attentive audience because I can see scores of people scratching their heads, thinking of words like <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu, calpa</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span>. <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> is easy, it's just one of those strange exceptions that every language produces. <span style="color: #008000;">Calpa</span> is interesting but easy to explain because it derives from an earlier <span style="color: #008000;">colbthach</span>, which had the voiced stop.
 <span style="color: #008000;">Mialchu</span> doesn't have the helping vowel because you don't get the helping vowel after long vowels or diphthongs.

@@ Loidhne 97: / Loidhne 97: @@
 ==And, of course, everywhere?==
-And just a final note on dialects - most living varieties of Gaelic do what was described above. However, there are, and used to be, a few dialects which had either very little in the way of helping vowels or no helping vowels, at all.  In these "very little" dialects, the helping vowel was simply a schwa:
+And just a final note on dialects - most living varieties of Gaelic do what's described above. However, there are, and used to be, a few dialects which had either very little in the way of helping vowels or no helping vowels, at all.  In these "very little" dialects, the helping vowel was simply a schwa:
 [[Faidhle:f-cuideachaidh.jpg|center]]
 <br />
 {{BeaganGramair}}

@@ Loidhne 25: / Loidhne 25: @@
 For now, we'll sidestep the why and tell you the when.
-Mostly this happens when you get <span style="color: #008000;">l n r</span> and /ʃ/ coming together with <span style="color: #008000;">b, bh, ch, g, gh, m, mh</span>.  The general pattern that is produced is that the vowel immediately preceding this sequence is simply repeated (for exceptions, see below).
+Mostly this happens when you get <span style="color: #008000;">l n r</span> and /ʃ/ coming together with <span style="color: #008000;">b, bh, ch, g, gh, m, mh</span>.  The general pattern that's produced is that the vowel immediately preceding this sequence is repeated (for exceptions, see below).
 Let's look at some examples:
@@ Loidhne 90: / Loidhne 90: @@
 ==It's always like this, right?==
-Now what was that I said about exceptions? Not too tricky, most dialects don't like the [ɛCɛ] (C stands for any consonant) sequences, so they have [ɛCa] for example <span style="color: #008000;">dearg</span> [dʲɛrag]. The other exception are slender consonant clusters where the second vowel is generally [i], not a repeat of the first eg <span style="color: #008000;">tairbh</span> [tɛrʲiv]. The latter does not apply to most Hebridean dialects, so it's really up to you what you want to do. In general, people seem to find the [i] variant easier to say.
+Now what was that I said about exceptions?  Well, it's not too tricky. Most dialects don't like the [ɛCɛ] (C stands for any consonant) sequences, so they produce [ɛCa], for example, <span style="color: #008000;">dearg</span> [dʲɛrag]. The other exceptions are slender consonant clusters where the second vowel is generally [i] and are not a repeat of the first eg <span style="color: #008000;">tairbh</span> [tɛrʲiv]. The latter does not apply to most Hebridean dialects. So, it's really up to you what you want to do. In general, people seem to find the [i] variant easier to say.
-And I can tell you're an attentive audience because I can see scores of people scratching their heads, thinking of words like <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu, calpa</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span>. <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> is easy, it's just one of those strange exceptions every language throws up. <span style="color: #008000;">Calpa</span> now is interesting but easy to explain because it derives from an earlier <span style="color: #008000;">colbthach</span>, which had the voiced stop.
+And I can tell you're an attentive audience because I can see scores of people scratching their heads, thinking of words like <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu, calpa</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">mialchu</span>. <span style="color: #008000;">Glaschu</span> is easy, it's just one of those strange exceptions every language throws out. <span style="color: #008000;">Calpa</span> is interesting but easy to explain because it derives from an earlier <span style="color: #008000;">colbthach</span>, which had the voiced stop.
 <span style="color: #008000;">Mialchu</span> doesn't have the helping vowel because you don't get the helping vowel after long vowels or diphthongs.

@@ Loidhne 21: / Loidhne 21: @@
 Or, before you clobber me: If, in the stressed syllable of a word, you get two consonants, one of which is, or used to be, voiced, stick in the extra vowel as long as the two consonants are not homo-organic.
-Ok, step by step.  Sometimes we get consonant clusters in Gaelic: <span style="color: #008000;">rb, rc, rd, sg, st</span> ...  As most people who have done Gaelic for even a few weeks only know, there are some words where you are supposed to stick in an extra vowel when you get these clusters, for example <span style="color: #008000;">gorm</span> [gɔrɔm]. Ask your teacher when or why and you'll get the famous blank face. Not, incidentally, that that's their fault, most native speakers of any language can't explain why they say stuff.
+OK, step by step.  Sometimes we get consonant clusters in Gaelic such as <span style="color: #008000;">rb, rc, rd, sg, st</span>.  As most people learn, even in the first weeks of studying Gaelic, there are some words where you're supposed to stick in an extra vowel to break up consonant clusters, for example <span style="color: #008000;">gorm</span> [gɔrɔm] or <span style="color: #008000;">dearg</span> [dʲɛrɛg]. Ask your teacher when or why this happens and you'll get the famous blank face. Incidentally, that's not their fault. Most native speakers, of any language, can't explain why they say stuff.
-We'll sidestep the why this time but we can certainly tell you when.
+For now, we'll sidestep the why and tell you the when.
-Mostly this happens when you get <span style="color: #008000;">l n r</span> and /ʃ/ coming together with <span style="color: #008000;">b, bh, ch, g, gh, m, mh</span>.  What generally happens is that the vowel immediately preceding this sequence is simply repeated (exceptions see below).
+Mostly this happens when you get <span style="color: #008000;">l n r</span> and /ʃ/ coming together with <span style="color: #008000;">b, bh, ch, g, gh, m, mh</span>.  The general pattern that is produced is that the vowel immediately preceding this sequence is simply repeated (for exceptions, see below).
 Let's look at some examples: