North Welsh Long Vowels from the Government Phonology Viewpoint

Tomasz Czerniak

Tomasz Czerniak The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

Keywords: Government Phonology; Welsh; long vowels; lengthening; licensing

Abstract

The aim of this article is to address the issue of vowel length in the northern varieties of the Welsh language. The approach used to perform the formal analysis was the theory of Government Phonology. This model was chosen because of its non-arbitrary assumptions concerning the syllabic structure. The data were collected from various academic works dealing with the pronunciation of Welsh and subsequently categorised so that it could be clearly presented and analysed. Further, the paper summarises previous analyses of Welsh vowel length giving a critical overview of different approaches. Their strong and weak points help formulate new hypotheses. The analysis proposed in this article assumes that Welsh long vowels obtain their structure as a result of lengthening. The structure of such a vowel is composed of two independent nuclei separated with an empty onset, which is induced by stress. The melody of the vowel is a result of spreading to an empty position which has to be licensed.

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