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Scottish vowel length rule

January 01, 1970

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Scottish Vowel Length Rule (also known as Aitken's law after A. J. Aitken, the Scottish linguist who formulated it) describes how vowel length in Scots, Scottish English, and, to some extent, Ulster English[1] and Geordie[2] is conditioned by the phonetic environment of the target vowel. Primarily, the rule is that certain vowels (described below) are phonetically long in the following environments:

  • Before /r/.
  • Before a voiced fricative (/v, z, ð, ʒ/).
  • Before a morpheme boundary.
  • In a word-final open syllable, save for the HAPPY vowel /e/ (or, in Geordie, /iː/).

Exceptions can also exist for particular vowel phonemes, dialects, words, etc., some of which are discussed in greater detail below.

Phonemes edit

The underlying phonemes of the Scottish vowel system (that is, in both Scottish Standard English dialects and Scots dialects) are as follows:[3]

Aitken's Scots
vowel
number 		1 2 3 16 4 8 8a 10 9 5 6 7 14 11 12 18 13 15 17 19
Scots phoneme /ai~əi/★ /i/★ /ei/[a] /ɛ/★ /e/★ /eː~eːə/[b] /əi/ /oi/ /o/ /ʉ/★[c] /ø/★[d] /jʉ/ /iː/★[e] /ɔː/ /ɔ/★[f] /ʌʉ/★[g] — /ɪ/[h] /a/★[i] /ʌ/
Scottish English phoneme /ai~əi/★ /i/★ /ɛ/★ /e/★[j] /ɔi/ /o/ — /ʉ/★[k] /jʉ/[l][m] — /ɔ/[n] — /ʌʉ/★ /ɪ/ /a/★ /ʌ/[k]
Wells'
lexical
sets 		PRICE FLEECE, NEAR DRESS,
NURSE (part)[o] 		FACE, happY, SQUARE CHOICE GOAT, FORCE — FOOT, GOOSE, CURE — THOUGHT, LOT, CLOTH, NORTH — MOUTH KIT,
NURSE (part)[o] 		TRAP, PALM, BATH, START STRUT, NURSE
(part)[o]
Example words bite, shire beet, sheer beat, shear breath, head bet, fern bate, race bait, raise bay, ray boil, join boy, joy boat, four (aboot, mooth) bush, boot, poor beauty, pure (dee, lee) bought, flaw bot, for (nout, owre) about, mouth bit, fir bat, farm butt, fur

★ = Vowels that definitively follow the Scottish Vowel Length Rule.

  1. ^ Vowel 3 remains a distinct phoneme /ei/ only in some North Northern Scots varieties,[4][5] generally merging with /i/ or /e/ in other Modern Scots varieties.[5]
  2. ^ In most Central and Southern Scots varieties vowel 8 /eː/ merges with vowel 4 /e/. Some other varieties distinguish between the two at least partially.[6] In Ulster Scots the realisation may be [ɛː].[7] In non-rhotic Geordie, they are distinguished by quality; FACE is [eː], [ɪə] or [eɪ], whereas SQUARE is [ɛː], distinguished from DRESS by length.[2] The vowels are not phonemically distinct in Scottish English, which is a rhotic variety.
  3. ^ Stem-final /ʉ/, is diphthongised to /ʌʉ/ in Southern Scots.[8]
  4. ^ Most Central Scots varieties merge /ø/ with /e/ in long environments and with /ɪ/ in short environments, but most Northern Scots varieties merge /ø/ with /i/.[9] /ø/ generally remains [ø], sometimes [y] in short environments, in the conservative dialects of Scots spoken in parts of Perthshire and Angus, Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, East Dumfrieshire, Orkney and Shetland.[10] Before /k/ and /x/ /ø/ is often realised [(j)ʉ] or [(j)ʌ] depending on dialect.[11]
  5. ^ Stem-final /iː/ is diphthongised to [əi] or [ei] in Southern Scots.[8]
  6. ^ /ɔ/ (vowel 18) may merge with /o/ (vowel 5) in Central and Southern Scots varieties.[12]
  7. ^ /ʌʉ/ may be merged with /o/ before /k/ in many Modern Scots varieties.
  8. ^ In some eastern and Southern Scots varieties /ɪ/ approaches /ɛ/ in quality. Whether this results in a phonemic merger needs to be further researched.[13]
  9. ^ In some Modern Scots varieties /a/ may merge with /ɔː/ in long environments.[14] (see below)
  10. ^ The final vowel in happY is best identified as an unstressed allophone of FACE for most speakers of Scottish English and Ulster English: /ˈhape/. In Geordie, it is best identified as an unstressed allophone of FLEECE: /ˈhapiː/.[15]
  11. ^ a b /ʉ/ corresponds to two phonemes in Geordie (as in most other English accents): /uː/ GOOSE versus /ʊ/ FOOT; however, this /ʊ/ is not distinguished from /ʌ/, those vowels having never historically split in Geordie. In other words, the two relevant phonemes in all Scottish and Ulster varieties are FOOT/GOOSE versus STRUT, whereas in Geordie the two are FOOT/STRUT versus +GOOSE.[2]
  12. ^ The sequence corresponding to the CURE set is /ʉr/ (regardless of the preceding /j/, so including /jʉr/), not /jʉ/, as CURE stems from historical /uːr/. Both /ʉr/ and /jʉr/ function as vowel+consonant sequences in the phonologies of Scots and Scottish English. In English, /jʉ/ is normally regarded as a consonant+vowel sequence as well, rather than a diphthong. In this article, it is analyzed as a diphthong, following Aitken.
  13. ^ /j/ merges with the preceding alveolar stop to form a postalveolar affricate in the case of yod-coalescence. Tune is best analysed as /tʃʉn/ for many speakers of Scottish English.
  14. ^ Vowel 12 /ɔː/ is typically distinguished from vowel 18 /ɔ/ in Scots but not in Scottish English, which features the cot-caught merger. Furthermore, this merged vowel may be invariably long in all environments, for some dialects. In Geordie, the vowels are distinct as /ɔː/ for THOUGHT/NORTH and /ɒ/ for LOT/CLOTH.[2] They are normally distinct in Ulster English as well, where CLOTH has a long vowel /ɔː/.
  15. ^ a b c Wells' lexical set NURSE corresponds to three separate Scottish phoneme sequences: /ɛr/, /ɪr/ and /ʌr/ (as in fern, fir and fur respectively), as Scots and Scottish English have not undergone the NURSE mergers found most other dialects of English.[16]

Rule specifics and exceptions edit

The Scottish Vowel Length Rule affects all vowels except the always-short vowels 15 and 19 (/ɪ/ and /ʌ/) and, in many Modern Scots varieties, the always-long Scots-only vowels 8, 11, and 12 (here transcribed as /eː/, /iː/ and /ɔː/) that do not occur as phonemes separate from /e, i, ɔ/ in Scottish Standard English.[17] The further north a Scots dialect is from central Scotland, the more it will contain specific words that do not adhere to the rule.[18]

  • /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ (vowels 15 and 19) are usually short in all environments.
  • In some Modern Scots varieties /a/ may merge with /ɔː/ in long environments.[14] In Ulster Scots /ɛ/, /a/ and /ɔ/ are usually always long and the [əʉ] realisation of /ʌʉ/ is short before a voiceless consonant or before a sonorant followed by a voiceless consonant but long elsewhere.[19]
  • /i/, /e/, /o/, /ʉ/, /ø/, /ʌʉ/, and /jʉ/,(vowels 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, and 14) are usually long in the following environments and short elsewhere:[20]
    • In stressed syllables before voiced fricatives, namely /v, ð, z, ʒ/, and also before /r/.[17] In some Modern Scots varieties, before the monomorphemic end-stresses syllables /rd/, /r/ + any voiced consonant, /ɡ/ and /dʒ/.[21] In Shetland dialect the [d] realisation of underlying /ð/, usual in other Scots varieties, remains a long environment.[22]
    • Before another vowel[23] and
    • Before a morpheme boundary[17] so, for example, "stayed" [steːd] is pronounced with a longer vowel than "staid" [sted].
  • /ɔː/ (vowel 12) usually occurs in all environments in final stressed syllables.[14][clarification needed]
  • Vowel 8a, which only occurs stem-finally, and vowel 10 are always short;[5] therefore, vowel 1 in its short form (according to the Rule), vowel 8a, and vowel 10 all merge as the diphthong /əi/. In its long form, vowel 1 is here transcribed as /ai/.[20]

History edit

Main article: Phonological history of Scots

The Scottish Vowel Length Rule is assumed to have come into being between the early Middle Scots and late Middle Scots periods.[24]

References edit

  1. ^ Harris J. (1985) Phonological Variation and Change: Studies in Hiberno English, Cambridge. p. 14
  2. ^ a b c d Watt, Dominic; Allen, William (2003), "Tyneside English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 267–271, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001397
  3. ^ Aitken A.J. (1984) 'Scottish Accents and Dialects' in 'Language in the British Isles' Trudgill, P. (ed). pp. 94-98.
  4. ^ Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction p. xxxvi 17 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b c A History of Scots to 1700, pp. xcviii
  6. ^ Aitken A.J. (1981) 'The Scottish Vowel-Length Rule' in 'So meny People Longages and Tonges' Benskin, M. and Samuels M.S. (eds). p. 151.
  7. ^ Johnston P. Regional Variation in Jones C. (1997) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburg University Press, p. 465.
  8. ^ a b . p. xxx. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Aitken A.J. (1984) 'Scottish Accents and Dialects' in 'Language in the British Isles' Trudgill, P. (ed). p. 99.
  10. ^ Aitken A.J. (1981) 'The Scottish Vowel-Length Rule' in 'So meny People Longages and Tonges' Benskin, M. and Samuels M.S. (eds). p. 144-145.
  11. ^ Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction p. xix
  12. ^ Aitken A.J. (1981) 'The Scottish Vowel-Length Rule' in 'So meny People Longages and Tonges' Benskin, M. and Samuels M.S. (eds). p. 152.
  13. ^ Aitken A.J. (1984) 'Scottish Accents and Dialects' in 'Language in the British Isles' Trudgill, P. (ed). p. 101.
  14. ^ a b c Aitken A.J. (1981) 'The Scottish Vowel-Length Rule' in 'So meny People Longages and Tonges' Benskin, M. and Samuels M.S. (eds). p. 150.
  15. ^ Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-22919-7, (vol. 1)
  16. ^ Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 138, 199–200, ISBN 0-521-22919-7, (vol. 1)
  17. ^ a b c Aitken A.J. (1984) 'Scottish Accents and Dialects' in 'Language in the British Isles' Trudgill, P. (ed). p. 98.
  18. ^ Coll Millar. 2007. Northern and Insular Scots. Edinburgh: University Press Ltd. p. 20
  19. ^ Harris J. (1984) English in the north of Ireland in Trudgill P., Language in the British Isles, Cambridge p. 120
  20. ^ a b A.J. Aitken in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press 1992. p. 894
  21. ^ Aitken A.J. (1981) 'The Scottish Vowel-Length Rule' in 'So meny People Longages and Tonges' Benskin, M. and Samuels M.S. (eds). p. 147.
  22. ^ Aitken A.J. (1981) 'The Scottish Vowel-Length Rule' in 'So meny People Longages and Tonges' Benskin, M. and Samuels M.S. (eds). p. 141.
  23. ^ A.J. Aitken in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press 1992. p. 910
  24. ^ Aitken A.J. (1981) 'The Scottish Vowel-Length Rule' in 'So meny People Longages and Tonges' Benskin, M. and Samuels M.S. (eds). p. 137.

January 01, 1970
scottish, vowel, length, rule, this, article, contains, phonetic, transcriptions, international, phonetic, alphabet, introductory, guide, symbols, help, distinction, between, brackets, transcription, delimiters, scottish, vowel, length, rule, also, known, aitk. This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA For the distinction between and see IPA Brackets and transcription delimiters The Scottish Vowel Length Rule also known as Aitken s law after A J Aitken the Scottish linguist who formulated it describes how vowel length in Scots Scottish English and to some extent Ulster English 1 and Geordie 2 is conditioned by the phonetic environment of the target vowel Primarily the rule is that certain vowels described below are phonetically long in the following environments Before r Before a voiced fricative v z d ʒ Before a morpheme boundary In a word final open syllable save for the HAPPY vowel e or in Geordie iː Exceptions can also exist for particular vowel phonemes dialects words etc some of which are discussed in greater detail below Contents 1 Phonemes 2 Rule specifics and exceptions 3 History 4 ReferencesPhonemes editThe underlying phonemes of the Scottish vowel system that is in both Scottish Standard English dialects and Scots dialects are as follows 3 Aitken s Scots vowel number 1 2 3 16 4 8 8a 10 9 5 6 7 14 11 12 18 13 15 17 19 Scots phoneme ai ei i ei a ɛ e eː eːe b ei oi o ʉ c o d jʉ iː e ɔː ɔ f ʌʉ g ɪ h a i ʌ Scottish English phoneme ai ei i ɛ e j ɔi o ʉ k jʉ l m ɔ n ʌʉ ɪ a ʌ k Wells lexical sets PRICE FLEECE NEAR DRESS NURSE part o FACE happY SQUARE CHOICE GOAT FORCE FOOT GOOSE CURE THOUGHT LOT CLOTH NORTH MOUTH KIT NURSE part o TRAP PALM BATH START STRUT NURSE part o Example words bite shire beet sheer beat shear breath head bet fern bate race bait raise bay ray boil join boy joy boat four aboot mooth bush boot poor beauty pure dee lee bought flaw bot for nout owre about mouth bit fir bat farm butt fur Vowels that definitively follow the Scottish Vowel Length Rule Vowel 3 remains a distinct phoneme ei only in some North Northern Scots varieties 4 5 generally merging with i or e in other Modern Scots varieties 5 In most Central and Southern Scots varieties vowel 8 eː merges with vowel 4 e Some other varieties distinguish between the two at least partially 6 In Ulster Scots the realisation may be ɛː 7 In non rhotic Geordie they are distinguished by quality FACE is eː ɪe or eɪ whereas SQUARE is ɛː distinguished from DRESS by length 2 The vowels are not phonemically distinct in Scottish English which is a rhotic variety Stem final ʉ is diphthongised to ʌʉ in Southern Scots 8 Most Central Scots varieties merge o with e in long environments and with ɪ in short environments but most Northern Scots varieties merge o with i 9 o generally remains o sometimes y in short environments in the conservative dialects of Scots spoken in parts of Perthshire and Angus Berwickshire Roxburghshire East Dumfrieshire Orkney and Shetland 10 Before k and x o is often realised j ʉ or j ʌ depending on dialect 11 Stem final iː is diphthongised to ei or ei in Southern Scots 8 ɔ vowel 18 may merge with o vowel 5 in Central and Southern Scots varieties 12 ʌʉ may be merged with o before k in many Modern Scots varieties In some eastern and Southern Scots varieties ɪ approaches ɛ in quality Whether this results in a phonemic merger needs to be further researched 13 In some Modern Scots varieties a may merge with ɔː in long environments 14 see below The final vowel in happY is best identified as an unstressed allophone of FACE for most speakers of Scottish English and Ulster English ˈhape In Geordie it is best identified as an unstressed allophone of FLEECE ˈhapiː 15 a b ʉ corresponds to two phonemes in Geordie as in most other English accents uː GOOSE versus ʊ FOOT however this ʊ is not distinguished from ʌ those vowels having never historically split in Geordie In other words the two relevant phonemes in all Scottish and Ulster varieties are FOOT GOOSE versus STRUT whereas in Geordie the two are FOOT STRUT versus GOOSE 2 The sequence corresponding to the CURE set is ʉr regardless of the preceding j so including jʉr not jʉ as CURE stems from historical uːr Both ʉr and jʉr function as vowel consonant sequences in the phonologies of Scots and Scottish English In English jʉ is normally regarded as a consonant vowel sequence as well rather than a diphthong In this article it is analyzed as a diphthong following Aitken j merges with the preceding alveolar stop to form a postalveolar affricate in the case of yod coalescence Tune is best analysed as tʃʉn for many speakers of Scottish English Vowel 12 ɔː is typically distinguished from vowel 18 ɔ in Scots but not in Scottish English which features the cot caught merger Furthermore this merged vowel may be invariably long in all environments for some dialects In Geordie the vowels are distinct as ɔː for THOUGHT NORTH and ɒ for LOT CLOTH 2 They are normally distinct in Ulster English as well where CLOTH has a long vowel ɔː a b c Wells lexical set NURSE corresponds to three separate Scottish phoneme sequences ɛr ɪr and ʌr as in fern fir and fur respectively as Scots and Scottish English have not undergone the NURSE mergers found most other dialects of English 16 Rule specifics and exceptions editThe Scottish Vowel Length Rule affects all vowels except the always short vowels 15 and 19 ɪ and ʌ and in many Modern Scots varieties the always long Scots only vowels 8 11 and 12 here transcribed as eː iː and ɔː that do not occur as phonemes separate from e i ɔ in Scottish Standard English 17 The further north a Scots dialect is from central Scotland the more it will contain specific words that do not adhere to the rule 18 ɪ and ʌ vowels 15 and 19 are usually short in all environments In some Modern Scots varieties a may merge with ɔː in long environments 14 In Ulster Scots ɛ a and ɔ are usually always long and the eʉ realisation of ʌʉ is short before a voiceless consonant or before a sonorant followed by a voiceless consonant but long elsewhere 19 i e o ʉ o ʌʉ and jʉ vowels 2 4 5 6 7 13 and 14 are usually long in the following environments and short elsewhere 20 In stressed syllables before voiced fricatives namely v d z ʒ and also before r 17 In some Modern Scots varieties before the monomorphemic end stresses syllables rd r any voiced consonant ɡ and dʒ 21 In Shetland dialect the d realisation of underlying d usual in other Scots varieties remains a long environment 22 Before another vowel 23 and Before a morpheme boundary 17 so for example stayed steːd is pronounced with a longer vowel than staid sted ɔː vowel 12 usually occurs in all environments in final stressed syllables 14 clarification needed Vowel 8a which only occurs stem finally and vowel 10 are always short 5 therefore vowel 1 in its short form according to the Rule vowel 8a and vowel 10 all merge as the diphthong ei In its long form vowel 1 is here transcribed as ai 20 History editMain article Phonological history of Scots The Scottish Vowel Length Rule is assumed to have come into being between the early Middle Scots and late Middle Scots periods 24 References edit Harris J 1985 Phonological Variation and Change Studies in Hiberno English Cambridge p 14 a b c d Watt Dominic Allen William 2003 Tyneside English Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 2 267 271 doi 10 1017 S0025100303001397 Aitken A J 1984 Scottish Accents and Dialects in Language in the British Isles Trudgill P ed pp 94 98 Scottish National Dictionary Introduction p xxxvi Archived 17 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine a b c A History of Scots to 1700 pp xcviii Aitken A J 1981 The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in So meny People Longages and Tonges Benskin M and Samuels M S eds p 151 Johnston P Regional Variation in Jones C 1997 The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language Edinburg University Press p 465 a b Introduction p xxx Archived from the original on 19 August 2014 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a work ignored help Aitken A J 1984 Scottish Accents and Dialects in Language in the British Isles Trudgill P ed p 99 Aitken A J 1981 The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in So meny People Longages and Tonges Benskin M and Samuels M S eds p 144 145 Scottish National Dictionary Introduction p xix Aitken A J 1981 The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in So meny People Longages and Tonges Benskin M and Samuels M S eds p 152 Aitken A J 1984 Scottish Accents and Dialects in Language in the British Isles Trudgill P ed p 101 a b c Aitken A J 1981 The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in So meny People Longages and Tonges Benskin M and Samuels M S eds p 150 Wells John C 1982 Accents of English Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 22919 7 vol 1 Wells John C 1982 Accents of English Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 138 199 200 ISBN 0 521 22919 7 vol 1 a b c Aitken A J 1984 Scottish Accents and Dialects in Language in the British Isles Trudgill P ed p 98 Coll Millar 2007 Northern and Insular Scots Edinburgh University Press Ltd p 20 Harris J 1984 English in the north of Ireland in Trudgill P Language in the British Isles Cambridge p 120 a b A J Aitken in The Oxford Companion to the English Language Oxford University Press 1992 p 894 Aitken A J 1981 The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in So meny People Longages and Tonges Benskin M and Samuels M S eds p 147 Aitken A J 1981 The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in So meny People Longages and Tonges Benskin M and Samuels M S eds p 141 A J Aitken in The Oxford Companion to the English Language Oxford University Press 1992 p 910 Aitken A J 1981 The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in So meny People Longages and Tonges Benskin M and Samuels M S eds p 137 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Scottish vowel length rule amp oldid 1218322963, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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