> >... > >('isposi'), /e/ in French/Spanish, /y/ in Welsh. This was a comparatively > >late phenomenon in Welsh, after the separation of Cornish, and old texts > >often do not show it. The first occurrence of the word 'ystafell' is in > >the form 'stavell'. -- Gareth > > Yn wir? I remember being quite shocked to discover I'd have to search > dictionaries under "y" for words I first _heard_ as "sgrifennu", etc. > Are people generally recommended to sound that initial "y" when > speaking carefully nowadays, or only in some words, rather than others, > or is this a regional difference? I think you'll find it's pretty well gone out in speech (and in non- formal styles of writing), except perhaps in a few disyllabic words where the "y" takes the stress). It COULD have faded away from Welsh of its own accord, of course, but very likely the non-occurrence in English of anything comparable has a lot to do with it. I doubt that if you borrowed a new English "sC-" word today you'd cymricise it as "ysC-". Is that right, Cymry? ************************ Nigel Love Linguistics Cape Town NLOVE@BEATTIE.UCT.AC.ZA ************************