Consonants /r/

The Welsh language has two r phonemes: a voiced alveolar rolled /r/, which is sometimes realized as a flap  and sometimes, particularly in the Bala area, north Wales, as a uvular rolled [R] or uvular fricative  ; and a voiceless alveolar rolled  ( <rh> in ordinary orthography). Welsh  impacts little on Welsh English, but rolled [r] realizations occur often in the spoken English of north and south Wales, excepting the border areas, and the Gower Peninsula and south Pembrokeshire, where an approximant  dominates. There is also a high frequency of flapped  in Welsh English, particularly in traditional Welsh-speaking areas, and this can be interpreted as further evidence of Welsh influence on Welsh English /r/. Uvular realizations of Welsh English /r/ are confined to the north, where they are rare and possibly usually idiolectal.

Orthographic r is always articulated in the Welsh language, in all word-positions, and this practice is carried over at times into Welsh English, resulting in post-vocalic /r/ word-medially and word-finally in the north and the south, this rhoticity being centred in the traditional Welsh-speaking areas in the west half of Wales. This Welsh-influenced rhoticity in NURSE, SQUARE, START, NORTH, FORCE, BOAR sometimes leads to a short vowel followed by /r/ (Parry 1999: 14–17), such as:  in first, third, work in western mid Wales; /εr/ in heard (a spelling pronunciation) and in chair, mare, pears in pockets in the west; /ar ~ ar/ in arm, farmer, farthing in the west;  in forks, morning and in boar, four a few times in north, mid and west Wales. Occasionally the short vowel minus following /r/ is recorded. Rhotic forms with long vowels are common in NURSE, SQUARE, START, NORTH, FORCE, BOAR, with the general pattern as follows: long vowel followed by /r/ (that is, forms influenced by the Welsh pronunciation convention of always articulating orthographic r), widespread in the western half of Wales; long r-colored vowel without a following /r/ (that is, forms influenced by west of England accents), occurring in the mid- and south-eastern border areas, and in south Pembrokeshire and the Gower Peninsula.

مواضيع ذات صلة

Spelling and Pronunciation SUMMARY

American English vs. British English

Morphological Basis of English Spelling

Phoneme–Grapheme Correspondences in English Vowels

Phoneme–Grapheme Correspondences in English Consonants

Spelling and Pronunciation Irregularity of English Spelling

Structural Factors in Second Language Phonology SUMMARY

Perception

Optimality Theory (OT)

Ontogeny Phylogeny Model (OPM)

Markedness

Hypercontrast