[Spellyans] 'up, upwards'

[Michael Everson]

On 24 Jan 2009, at 18:52, Christian Semmens wrote:

> Although I understand there are some aesthetic sensibilities in RLC  
> regading the use of the letter 'i' but, so far I haven't seen much  
> engagement from the RLC community here with the exception of Mina  
> and Neil. Is this so important to them?

Really, it is. It's a reaction against Nance's y-only, I guess. I've  
had a number of conversations with RLC users, and indeed some of them  
think the SWF is "too medieval" already. I think some of that has to  
do with its use of the KK distribution of i and y.

We have had to make decisions about this distribution, because KK's  
assumptions and etymologies are not reliable. George may have got it  
right a lot of the time, but he also gets it wrong often, so every bit  
of it has to have a caveat.

The quality of initial /i/ in polysyllables is nearly always [ɪ], so  
the gwin/gwydn distinction need not apply there. KS uses i- and -y  
everywhere except in the various particles (yn, y, yth, yma) where the  
sound is arguably schwa or i-coloured schwa.

I'm confident that by the time you've reached the end of Alys in Pow  
an Anethow you will be quite used to the in/yn distinction, which  
while initially unfamiliar to those who have learnt UC, UCR, or KK,  
has a good pedagogical rationale as well as a political one.

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com