[Spellyans] kal revisited

[ajtrim at msn.com]

I agree that, for KS,  <càl> is preferable (and more authentic), and less 
likely to be mispronounced than <kall> ~ <call>.
However, the SWF does not allow the grave accent so it has to use some other 
mechanism to show that the vowel is short.
Writing <kall> ~ <call> is about the only way that this can be done.

I thought that the plural would be <callow> but, apparently, there is a <y> 
in it.

The plural that Dan is suggesting is therefore <callyow> but that does not 
look right (to me.)
The plural form <calyow> looks better, and it would still have a short vowel 
(and it would agree with KS.)

Unfortunately, it would seem that the agreed SWF rules are unclear as to 
what should be done.
The rule, as I read it, is that the double letter <ll> is retained:

a)  if some people pronounce the <ll> as extra long or
b)  if some people pronounce the <ll> extra loud or unvoiced, or
c)  if some people would otherwise pronounce the vowel <a> as long (or 
half-long?).

I believe that none of these apply in this case.
The only people who are likely to pronounce the <a> long are those who 
currently write <kalgh> pl.: <kalghyow> where the consonant cluster implies 
a short vowel.
If they do not already know the word, the SWF dictionary tells them that the 
vowel is short (by way of the Tudor IPA transcription, and the lack of a 
specifically Early Middle Cornish IPA transcription).


Regards,

Andrew J. Trim



--------------------------------------------------
From: "Michael Everson" <everson at evertype.com>
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 1:35 PM
To: "Standard Cornish discussion list" <spellyans at kernowek.net>
Subject: Re: [Spellyans] kal revisited

> On 5 Jan 2009, at 11:22, Daniel Prohaska wrote:
>
>> The various dictionaries give <cal, -yow> (UCR), <kalgh, -yow> (KK), 
>> <cal, caliaw> (RLC), so it seems there is a consensus for the plural 
>> suffix to be <-yow> rather than <-ow>. SWF with a short vowel would  need 
>> to write <kall, kallyow> {call, callyow}.
>
> I will say again, I think that <call> will yield the wrong  pronunciation. 
> <càl> pl <calyow> is preferable (and more authentic)  for this word.
>
> Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com
>
>
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