Bibliography

Chaudhri, Talat, “Studies in the consonantal system of Cornish”, PhD thesis, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 2007.

  • PhD thesis
Citation details
Contributors
Work
Studies in the consonantal system of Cornish
Publisher
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Year
2007
Online resources
Archive
resource: pure.aber.ac.uk
Description
Abstract (cited)

The need for continued research into Cornish phonology is considerable, especially considering the paucity of substantial academic works on the subject since Dr. Kenneth George’s seminal PhD thesis in 1984 (unfortunately unpublished). That work was intended to be a comprehensive survey of Cornish historical phonology, but subsequent disagreements have arisen over a number of issues fundamental to the proper understanding of the development of the language. There remain a number of areas of uncertainty that warrant further detailed study.

This thesis seeks to address only a limited range of the most important of these issues and is therefore focussed upon four principal studies. The reason that these deal only with areas of the consonantal system is one of space: in the opinion of the present author, it would not have been desirable within the confines of this doctoral thesis, in addition to the work that has been undertaken, to address in sufficient depth all of the major unresolved issues concerning the vocalic system as well.

Instead, the focus has been to provide a comprehensive study of the problems under discussion, including two that have so far been afforded little attention. The author believes that initial b/m confusion, although strictly unconnected with the sound changes involved in pre-occlusion, is a loosely associated matter that equally deserves to be the focus of study here; the study of s/th confusions has an important bearing on the study of assibilation and palatalisation in a few instances, but is also a neglected problem in its own right. Moreover, these two narrower studies complement those of the greater sound changes, whose application was more considerable. It is hoped that this provides a level of unity to the work as a whole and that these four studies will represent a major step forward in understanding the historical phonology of Cornish.

Subjects and topics
Headings
Cornish language
Approaches
linguistics
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
September 2022