From: Mark E. Shoulson (mark@kli.org)
Date: Thu Jun 26 2008 - 12:03:33 CDT
Leo Broukhis wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 8:19 AM, Andreas Prilop
> <andreasprilopwww@trashmail.net> wrote:
>
>> I puzzled by
>> http://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%C5%B5l_Cesar
>> and other pages in Welsh.
>>
>> The above page contains the letter "w with circumflex";
>> yet it also has *lots* of vowels followed by ASCII (!)
>> apostrophe. I always thought that "vowel followed by
>> ASCII apostrophe" is only a primitive writing system
>> used mainly by people who don't know better.
>>
>
> The above page contains, among other letter-apostrophe combinations,
> "â'i" - thus proving that the writers know what they're doing.
>
OK, I know Welsh to an extent, maybe I can help explain.
Welsh has six vowels: a e i o u w y. Any of these vowels may be found
plain, or with *any* of the accent marks: acute, grave, circumflex,
dieresis. Some examples are somewhat rare, and the circumflex is by far
the most common accent, but I understand that there are examples of
(pretty much) every vowel with every accent.
Welsh uses the apostrophe heavily, not as a letter modifier, but for its
usual reason: contractions. A lot of Welsh particles contract with
vowel-ending words before them, forming contractions (like "j'ai" in
French). It's more common than in English, and more rigid (it isn't
informal speech like in English, it's like French c'est and l'eau). So
things like "o'r" is the preposition "o" plus the article "yr". The â'i
example given is the preposition â plus the masc. or fem. possessive
prefix "ei".
(the page
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/welsh.html
mentions the use of the macron in Welsh; I don't recall that mentioned
in any of my studies of Welsh, but maybe it's there).
Anyway, yes, Welsh uses accents, and yes, it puts them on w's and y's.
And yes, it uses apostrophes a lot. But they're just apostrophes, for
contractions.
~mark
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