Re: some more Irish vowels


Brian M. Scott wrote:
On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:57:35 +0100, Ekkehard Dengler
<ED-RS@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:eljv5g$o8m$00$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:

"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1165841084.541373.59500@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ekkehard Dengler wrote:

[...]

Again, because merry and Mary are perfectly distinct for
me, I have no trouble identifying which is used in McC's
"yearning."

Judging by http://www.aftermathww1.com/homefires.asp,
you've simply misidentified McCormack's "merry":
[jE::rnIN] = /jErnIN/. If anything, the first vowel in
"yearning" is slightly lower than that in "glen".

I agree. And while I've not known many people who
distinguished <Mary> from <merry>, my recollection is that
those who do have had a longer, tenser, and slightly higher
vowel in <Mary>, so I can see how Peter might match McC's
<yearning> with his own <Mary> and McC's <glen> with his own
<merry> even though McC has /E/ in both in terms of his own
phonology.

Well, if John McCormick ever recorded "Danny Boy," we'd have plenty of
examples of "glen" to go by!

.

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