The Cornish language separated from the southwestern dialect of Common Brittonic at some point between 600 and 1000 AD. The phonological similarity of the Cornish, Welsh, and Breton languages during this period is reflected in their writing systems, and in some cases it is not possible to distinguish these languages orthographically. [1] However, by the time it had ceased to be spoken as a community language around 1800 [2] the Cornish language had undergone significant phonological changes, resulting in a number of unique features which distinguish it from the other neo-Brittonic languages.
The emergence of a language that can be described as specifically Cornish, rather than a dialect of late Common Brittonic, has not been conclusively dated and may have been a process lasting several hundred years. According to Kenneth Jackson, the Common Brittonic period ended around 600 AD due to the loss of direct land communications between western and southwestern Britain following the Anglo-Saxon incursions. [3] [4] Kim McCone, however, assumes a later date, around the turn of the first millennium, citing continuing maritime connections and the various shared phonological developments during this period, such as the accent shift and internal i-affection. [4] Only minor differences, such as the sporadic (orthographic) denasalisation of Common Brittonic *m, can distinguish Cornish from Breton during this period, and no single phonological feature distinguishes Cornish from both Welsh and Breton until the beginning of the assibilation of dental stops, which is not found before the second half of the eleventh century. [5]
Ken George divides the history of the Cornish language into four periods: [2]
These dates are broadly accepted, though Talat Chaudhri uses slightly different dates, based upon the estimated dates of the surviving texts. [6]
As with other languages known only from written records, the phonological system of Cornish has to be inferred through analysis of the orthography used in the extant manuscripts, using the methods of historical linguistics such as internal reconstruction and the comparative method. [7] This task is hampered by a relative paucity of surviving texts, [8] but the existence of a number of documents written in rhyme, as well as the work of Edward Lhuyd, who visited Cornwall for three months in the early 1700s and recorded what he heard in an approximately phonetic orthography, have allowed linguists to reconstruct various stages of the phonology of the Cornish language.
Most symbols below correspond with their expected IPA values. Some non-standard symbols used in the literature are explained below:
Stress in polysyllables was originally on the final syllable in the earliest Cornish, [10] [11] which then shifted to the penultimate syllable at some point in the eleventh century. [12] Monosyllables were usually stressed, apart from the definite article, possessive adjectives, verbal particles, conjunctions and prepositions. [13] According to Ken George, Middle Cornish verse suggests that the pitch-accent remained on the final syllable. [13]
From around 600 AD, the earlier Brittonic system of phonemic vowel length was replaced by a New Quantity System, in which vowel length is allophonic, determined by the position of the stress and the structure of the syllable. [14] [15] After the Old Cornish accent shift to the penultimate syllable, probably in the 11th century, the rules were as follows:
The date of the breakdown of these quantity rules, due to the influx of English loan-words not conforming to the original system, is disputed. Nicholas Williams dates it to before the earliest Middle Cornish texts, [18] whereas Ken George states that this change did not occur until 1600. [19] According to this analysis, Cornish at some point returned to a system of phonemic vowel length as in early Brittonic after this so-called "prosodic shift", and most vowels in polysyllables became or remained short.
The suggestion that Cornish phonology underwent systematic changes in its vocalic system first appears in Ken George's A Phonological History of Cornish, who dated it to around 1600. [20] Nicholas Williams, however, later suggested that this Prosodic Shift occurred some centuries earlier, either in the early thirteenth century [18] or the twelfth century. According to Williams, the consequences of the prosodic shift are: [21] [22]
Williams's theory has been criticised by several linguists. Chaudhri points out that "there is no incontrovertible evidence as yet to show that any such Prosodic Shift ever occurred" at any time, especially not as early as postulated by Williams; he further argues that "the observed results of pre-occlusion in the sixteenth century would have been impossible if the inherited quantity system had been radically re-shaped centuries before." [23] and states that George is "quite correct in his rejection of Williams's evidence for the Prosodic Shift at a date before the Middle Cornish period" [24] He also rejects George's use of Late Cornish spellings to support a shift c. 1600. [24] Albert Bock and Ben Bruch argue that Williams's claim that all diphthongs were short from the thirteenth century at the latest "does not withstand even a cursory glance at Edward Lhuyd's transcription of Late Cornish diphthongs", which were collected in the early 1700s. [25]
Nicholas Williams points out that the reflex of Common Brittonic *ī and *ĭ in the Middle Cornish texts is usually written as ⟨y⟩ in monosyllables, but is often written as ⟨e⟩ in polysyllables. [26] This phenomenon is known as 'vocalic alternation'.
This written alternation does not appear in all of the Middle Cornish texts, [27] and there is disagreement on how this alternation should be interpreted. Both Ken George and Nicholas Williams interpret this as a purely orthographic phenomenon. According to Williams, the continued writing of ⟨y⟩ and ⟨i⟩ in monosyllables is an archaism and a reflection of orthographic conservatism which does not represent the contemporary pronunciation of the scribes. [26] According to George, the scribes who wrote ⟨y⟩ were describing the quality of the vowel, whereas those who wrote ⟨e⟩ were describing the reduced quantity of a half-long vowel in a polysyllable. [28] Both of these interpretations are questioned by Bock and Bruch, who argue that the use of ⟨y⟩ and ⟨e⟩ in the texts reflects the phonetic reality of the language at around the time the manuscripts were written. According to their analysis, the graph used by the scribes is determined by the quality of the vowel (rather than the quantity), and vocalic alternation is a consequence of the lowering of Old Cornish *ɪ to *e. They further state that vocalic alternation "cannot therefore be the result of a general shortening of vowels, unless one accepts Williams's assertion that 'by the Late Cornish period, vowels in stressed monosyllables had again lengthened.'" [29]
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Proto-Celtic | British Latin | Late SW Brittonic | Old Cornish | Middle Cornish | Late Cornish | Example | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proto-Celtic | British Latin | Late Brittonic | Old Cornish | Middle Cornish | Late Cornish | ||||||
Short vowels | |||||||||||
ĭ | ɪ [35] | ɪ | ɪ | e | bitus 'world' | bɪd | bɪd | bɪz | bêz | ||
e [lower-alpha 1] [36] [37] | ɛ | ɛ | ɛ | ɸlikkā 'flat stone' | lɛx | lɛx | lɛx | lêx | |||
ĕ | e [35] | ɛ | ɛ | ɛ | ekʷos 'horse' | ɛbo̜l 'foal' | ɛbœl | ɛbɛl | ɛbɛl | ||
ɪ [lower-alpha 2] [38] | ɪ | ɪ | ɛ | ɸare kʷennū 'in front of the head' | ɛrbɪnn | ɛrbɪnn | ɛrbɪnn | war bɛᵈn [39] | |||
ɪ [lower-alpha 3] [40] [41] | ɪ | ɛ | ɛ | melinos 'yellow' | mɪlɪn | mɪlɪn | mɛlɪn | mɛlɪn | |||
ă | a [35] [42] | a | a | a | bakkos 'hook' | bax | bax | bax | bâh | ||
e̝ [lower-alpha 2] [43] | ɛ | ɛ | ɛ | markoi 'horses' | me̝rx | mɛrx | mɛrx | mɛrx | |||
e̝ [lower-alpha 3] [38] | ɛ | ɛ | ɛ | klamito-'sickness' | kle̝μɪd | klɛβɪd | klɛvɪz | klɛvɛz | |||
ŏ | o [35] | o | o | o | rotos 'wheel' | rod | roz | roz | rôz | ||
ɵ [lower-alpha 2] [44] [38] | ɛ | ɛ | ɛ | kornī 'horns' | kɵrn | kɛrn | kɛrn | kɛrn | |||
ɵ [lower-alpha 3] [38] | ɛ | ɛ | ɛ | olīnā 'elbow' | ɵlin | ɛlin | ɛlin | ɛlin | |||
ŭ | u [35] | o | o | o | bukkos 'buck' | bux | box | box | bôh | ||
o [lower-alpha 1] [36] [45] | o | o | o | butā 'hut, dwelling' | bod | bod | boz | bôz | |||
ʉ [lower-alpha 2] [38] | ɛ | ɛ | ɛ | tullī 'holes' | tʉll | tɛll | tɛll | tɛll | |||
ɵ [lower-alpha 3] [44] [38] | ɛ | ɛ | ɛ | gulbīno 'beak' | gɵlβin | gɛlβin | gɛlvin | gɛlvin | |||
Long vowels and diphthongs | |||||||||||
ī [46] | i | i | i | i | līw- 'colour' | liw | liw | liw | lîw | ||
ū [46] | kūlos 'back' | kil | kil | kil | kîl | ||||||
ī (< ē) [46] | wīros 'true' | gwir | gwir | gwir | gwîr | ||||||
eu [46] | y | y | y | i | teutā 'people' | tyd | tyd | tyz | tîz | ||
ou [46] | roudos 'red' | ryð | ryð | ryð | rîð | ||||||
oi [46] | oinos 'one' | yn | yn | ynn | ɪᵈn | ||||||
ei [46] | ui | ui | o̝ | u | skeitom 'shield' | skuid | skuid | sko̝z | skuz | ||
ai [46] | oi | kaikos 'blind' ('vain, worthless') | koiɡ | kuiɡ | ko̝ɡ | kûɡ | |||||
ā [47] [48] | ɔ | œ | œ | e | māros 'great' | mo̜r | mœr | mœr | mêr | ||
au [47] | au-beros 'vain, futile' | o̜βɛr | œβɛr | œvɛr | ɛvɛr | ||||||
Semivowels | |||||||||||
j | j [lower-alpha 4] [49] [50] | j | j | j | jaro- 'chicken' | jar | jar | jar | jâr | ||
ð [lower-alpha 5] [51] | ð | ð | ð | monijos 'mountain' | mɵnɪð | mɛnɪð | mɛnɪð | mɛnɪð | |||
w | gw [lower-alpha 4] [52] | gw | gw | gw | wēros 'true' | gwir | gwir | gwir | gwîr | ||
w [lower-alpha 6] [53] | w | w | w | awilā 'wind' | awɛl | awɛl | awɛl | awɛl | |||
Consonants | |||||||||||
kʷ | p [lower-alpha 4] [54] | p | p | p | kʷetwores 'four' | pɛdwar | pɛdwar | pɛzwar | padʒar | ||
b [lower-alpha 6] [55] | b | b | b | ekʷos 'horse' | ɛbo̜l 'foal' | ɛbœl | ɛbɛl | ɛbɛl | |||
t | t | t | t [56] [57] | t | toranos 'thunder' | taran | taran | taran | taran | ||
tʃ [58] | tʃ | tegos 'house' | ti | ti | tʃi | tʃəi | |||||
s [lower-alpha 7] [56] | s | s | kantom 'hundred' | kant | kant | kans | kans | ||||
d | d | d [lower-alpha 6] [56] | d | ɸlitanos 'broad' | lɪdan | lɛdan | lɛdan | lɛdan | |||
z | z [lower-alpha 8] [56] | beitom 'food' | buid | buid | bo̝z | bûz | |||||
dʒ [lower-alpha 6] [59] | tritijos 'third' | trɪdɪð | trɪda | trɪza | trɛdʒa | ||||||
r [lower-alpha 9] | |||||||||||
k | k [lower-alpha 4] [56] | k | k | k | kenetlom 'people, race' | kɛnɛðl | kɛnɛðl | kɛnɛðl | kɛnɛðl | ||
g [lower-alpha 6] [56] | g | g | g | dekam 'ten' | dɛg | dɛg | dɛg | dêg | |||
b | b [lower-alpha 4] [60] | b | b | b | biwos 'alive' | bɪw | bɪw | bɪw | bêw | ||
β [lower-alpha 6] [60] | β | v | v | ab-on- 'river' | aβon | aβon | avon | avon | |||
d | d [lower-alpha 4] [61] | d | d | d | dekam 'ten' | dɛg | dɛg | dɛg | dêg | ||
ð [lower-alpha 6] [61] | ð | ð | ð | roudos 'red' | ryð | ryð | ryð | rîð | |||
g | g [lower-alpha 4] [62] | g | g | g | gabros 'goat' | gaβr | gaβr | gavr | gavr | ||
ɣ [lower-alpha 6] [61] | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | slougos 'troop, army' | lyɣ | ly | ly | lîw | |||
ɣ [lower-alpha 10] [61] | x | x | (h) | argantom 'silver' | arɣant | arxant | arxans | ar(h)ans | |||
gʷ | gw [lower-alpha 4] [63] [64] | gw | gw | gw | gʷeltā 'grass' | gwɛlt | gwɛlt | gwɛls | gwɛls | ||
s | h [65] | h | h | h | satom 'seed' | had | had | haz | hâz | ||
∅ [66] | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | wesu 'worthy' | gwiw | gwiw | gwiw | gwîw | |||
s [65] | s | s | s | s | sagitta 'arrow' | saɣɛθ | sɛθ | sɛθ | sêθ | ||
ɸ | ∅ [67] | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ɸlānos 'full' | lo̜n | lœn | lœn | lên | ||
l | l [68] [69] | l | l | l | talu- 'forehead' | tal | tal | tal | tâl | ||
r | r [68] [70] | r | r | r | garanos 'crane' | garan | garan | garan | garan | ||
n | n [68] | n | n | n | nemos 'heaven' | nɛμ | nɛβ | nɛv | nêv | ||
m | m (= /M/, /mm/) [68] [71] | m | m | m | meli 'honey' | mɛl | mɛl | mɛl | mêl | ||
μ [68] | β | v | v | samos 'summer' | haμ | haβ | hav | hâv | |||
b | b | b | b | mrogis 'territory' | broɣ | bro | bro | brô | |||
ll | ll [72] [73] | ll | ll | ll | dallos 'blind' | dall | dall | dall | dall | ||
rr | rr [74] [75] | rr | rr | rr | karros 'wagon' | karr | karr | karr | karr | ||
nn | nn [76] [77] | nn | nn | ᵈn | kʷenno- 'head' | pɛnn | pɛnn | pɛnn | pɛᵈn | ||
mm | mm [76] [78] | mm | mm | ᵇm | mammā 'mother, mum' | mamm | mamm | mamm | maᵇm | ||
pp | f [79] | f | f | f | kippus 'pole, log' | kɪf | kɪf | kɪf | kêf | ||
tt | θ [80] | θ | θ | θ | kattos 'cat' | kaθ | kaθ | kaθ | kâθ | ||
kk | x [80] | x | x | h | brokkos 'badger' | brox | brox | brox | brôh | ||
Notes
Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | *mm | *nn*n | [ŋ] | |||||
Stop | *p*b | *t*d | *k*ɡ | |||||
Fricative | *β | *f | *θ*ð | *s | *x*ɣ | *h | ||
Nasalized fricative | *β̃ | |||||||
Approximant | *j | *ʍ*w | ||||||
Lateral | *ll*l | |||||||
Rhotic | *rr*r |
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | *i | *y | *u | |
Near-close | *ɪ | |||
Open-mid | *ɛ | *œ | *o | |
Open | *a |
i-diphthongs | u-diphthongs |
---|---|
*ai | *au |
*œi | |
*ou | |
*ɛi | *ɛu |
*ɪu | |
*iu | |
*ui |
Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | *mm*m | *nn*n | [ŋ] | ||||||
Stop | (*pp)*p*b | (*tt)*t*d | (*kk)*k*ɡ | ||||||
Affricate | *tʃ*dʒ | ||||||||
Fricative | (*ff)*f*v | (*θθ)*θ*ð | (*ss)*s*z | *ʃ*ʒ~dʒ | *ç | (*xx)*x | *h | ||
Approximant | *j | *ʍ*w | |||||||
Lateral | *ll*l | ||||||||
Rhotic | *rr*r |
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | *i | *y | *u | |
Near-close | *ɪ | |||
Close-mid | *o̝ | |||
Open-mid | *ɛ | *œ | *o | |
Open | *a |
i-diphthongs | u-diphthongs |
---|---|
*ai | *au |
*oi | *ou |
*ɛi | *ɛu |
(*ɪu) | |
*iu | |
(*yu) |
Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | *ᵇm*m | *ᵈn*n | [ŋ] | ||||||
Stop | *p*b | *t*d | *k*ɡ | ||||||
Affricate | *tʃ*dʒ | ||||||||
Fricative | *f*v | *θ*ð | *s*z | *ʃ | *h | ||||
Approximant | *j | *ʍ*w | |||||||
Lateral | *ll*l | ||||||||
Rhotic | *rr*r |
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | *iː | *uː | ||
Near-close | *ɪ | *ʊ | ||
Close-mid | *eː | *oː | ||
Mid | [ ə ] | |||
Open-mid | *ɛ | (*ɛː) | *ɔ | |
Near-open | *æ | *æː | ||
Open | (*ɒː) |
i-diphthongs | u-diphthongs |
---|---|
*au | |
*ɔi | *ɔu |
*ɛu | |
*əi | |
*iu | |
(*ui) |
Cornish ceased to be spoken as a community language around 1800. The revival of the language is generally dated to the publication of Henry Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language (1904). Jenner's work aims to pick up where the language left off and, as such, is mainly based upon Late Cornish vernacular and Lhuyd. Since this time, a variety of other recommended phonologies have been proposed, based upon various target dates and different theoretical reconstructions.
Jenner's system is largely based on the phonology of late Cornish, and therefore is characterised by pre-occlusion, the loss of the rounded front vowels, and the raising of /a/ to [æ]. This system was used by the earliest revivalists, until it was replaced by Nance's Unified Cornish.
Robert Morton Nance developed what came to be known as Unified Cornish from the 1930s. Nance based his system more on the earliest Middle Cornish texts, Pascon Agan Arluth and the Ordinalia. With a target date of around 1500, Nance's system is characterised by the addition of the rounded front vowel /y/ and a recommendation not to use pre-occluded forms.
Mainly associated with Richard Gendall, who began to promote this system in the early 1980s, Revived Late Cornish again seeks to base its phonology upon an analysis of Lhuyd and the other Late Cornish sources.
Developed mainly by Ken George following the publication of his thesis, A Phonological History of Cornish (1985), Kernewek Kemmyn again returns to a Middle Cornish target date. This system has a number of differences from Nance's reconstruction, including the addition of a second rounded front vowel /œ/, an additional vowel /o/, and a phonemic contrast between /i/ and /ɪ/. Also Kernewek Kemmyn is characterised by phonemic consonant length, half-long vowels in stressed penultima of polysyllables where appropriate, and a number of diphthongs which are not used in other systems. The following tables are based on George (2009b).
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | m ː | n | n ː | ( ŋ ) | ||||||
Stop | voiceless | p | p ː | t | t ː | tʃ | k | k ː | |||
voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | |||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | f ː | θ | θ ː | s | s ː | ʃ | x | x ː | h |
voiced | v | ð | z | ( ʒ ~ dʒ ) | |||||||
Approximant | l | l ː | j | w | |||||||
Rhotic | ɾ | r ː |
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i | y | u | |
Near-close | ɪ | |||
Close-mid | o | |||
Open-mid | ɛ | œ | ɔ | |
Open | a |
Following the publication of Williams (2006a), Nicholas Williams published his revision of Nance's system in the form of a grammar, Clappya Kernowek, and an English-Cornish Dictionary. UCR is notable for the absence of George's /o/ and /ɪ/ phonemes, lack of half-length, and a phonemic contrast between long and short vowels rather than consonants. However, it retains the /œ/ vowel of KK, which Unified Cornish does not use.
The Standard Written Form, agreed in May 2008, was developed with the intention of allowing all users of previous systems to write as they pronounce the language. It attempts to represent the pronunciation systems of UC, UCR, KK and RLC in a single orthography. As such, it does not represent a single phonology, but seeks to cover a range of pronunciations based on a period of several hundred years.
Kernowek Standard is an orthography and recommended pronunciation developed mainly by Nicholas Williams and Michael Everson in response to perceived problems with the SWF. Like the SWF, it attempts to represent a diverse range of pronunciations, with the exception of KK, the recommended phonology of which is not catered for. Although it mainly differs from the SWF orthographically, it has a number of phonological features which distinguish it from the SWF.
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Stop | p b | t d | k ɡ | ||||
Affricate | tʃ dʒ | ||||||
Fricative | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ | x | h | |
Rhotic | ɾ ~ ɹ | ||||||
Approximant | central | j | ʍ w | ||||
lateral | l |
Front | Central | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | short | long | ||
Close | ɪ ʏ | iː yː | ʊ | uː | |
Mid | ɛ œ | eː øː | ə | ɤ ~ ɔ | oː |
Open | a ~ æ | æː | ɒ | ɒː |
The phonology of Portuguese varies among dialects, in extreme cases leading to some difficulties in mutual intelligibility. This article on phonology focuses on the pronunciations that are generally regarded as standard. Since Portuguese is a pluricentric language, and differences between European Portuguese (EP), Brazilian Portuguese (BP), and Angolan Portuguese (AP) can be considerable, varieties are distinguished whenever necessary.
English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.
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Kernewek Kemmyn is a variety of the revived Cornish language.
In the pronunciation of the Russian language, several ways of vowel reduction are distinguished between the standard language and dialects. Russian orthography most often does not reflect vowel reduction, which can confuse foreign-language learners, but some spelling reforms have changed some words.
Taos is a Tanoan language spoken by several hundred people in New Mexico, in the United States. The main description of its phonology was contributed by George L. Trager in a (pre-generative) structuralist framework. Earlier considerations of the phonetics-phonology were by John P. Harrington and Jaime de Angulo. Trager's first account was in Trager (1946) based on fieldwork 1935-1937, which was then substantially revised in Trager (1948). The description below takes Trager (1946) as the main point of departure and notes where this differs from the analysis of Trager (1948). Harrington's description is more similar to Trager (1946). Certain comments from a generative perspective are noted in a comparative work Hale (1967).
The phonology of the Zuni language as spoken in the southwestern United States is described here. Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds.
The Standard Written Form or SWF of the Cornish language is an orthography standard that is designed to "provide public bodies and the educational system with a universally acceptable, inclusive, and neutral orthography". It was the outcome of a process initiated by the creation of the public body Cornish Language Partnership, which identified a need to agree on a single standard orthography in order to end previous orthographical disagreements, secure government funding, and increase the use of Cornish in Cornwall.
This article describes the phonology of the Occitan language.
This article discusses the phonological system of standard Russian based on the Moscow dialect. For an overview of dialects in the Russian language, see Russian dialects. Most descriptions of Russian describe it as having five vowel phonemes, though there is some dispute over whether a sixth vowel,, is separate from. Russian has 34 consonants, which can be divided into two types:
Bwaidoka is an Austronesian language spoken in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It is a local lingua franca.
The New Quantity System, or the Great British Vowel Shift, was a radical restructuring of the phonological system of the Common Brittonic language which occurred sometime after the middle of the first millennium AD, resulting in the collapse of the early Brittonic system of phonemic vowel length oppositions, which was inherited from Proto-Celtic, and its replacement by a system in which the formerly allophonic qualitative differences between long and short vowels is phonemicized, and vowel length becomes allophonic, and is determined by stress and syllable structure.
Neo-Brittonic, also known as Neo-Brythonic, is a stage of the Insular Celtic Brittonic languages that emerged by the middle of the sixth century CE. Neo-Brittonic languages include Old, Middle and Modern Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, as well as Cumbric.
Old Irish was affected by a series of phonological changes that radically altered its appearance compared with Proto-Celtic and older Celtic languages. The changes occurred at a fairly rapid pace between 350 and 550 CE.
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