Bibliography
Morgan Sleeper
Sleeper
Contributions to journals
Sleeper, Morgan, “Place-name mutation variation in Wales and Patagonia”, Journal of Celtic Linguistics 21 (2020): 143–172.
abstract:
This study uses corpus data of modern conversational speech to examine variation in the mutation of place-names in Welsh as spoken in both Wales and Patagonia. Specifically, it considers how speakers from both areas mutate (or do not mutate) place-names following the nasal mutation trigger yn 'in', through a two-step statistical approach of conditional inference trees and random forests. Results show no significant difference in how speakers from Wales and Patagonia mutate place-names in this environment, but that the radical initial consonant, speaker age, and place-name type including the geographical, linguistic, and cultural 'Welshness' of the place-name all significantly affect mutation behaviour. Furthermore, while nasal mutation is present in the data, the results also illustrate the growing use of soft mutation as an alternate
abstract:
This study uses corpus data of modern conversational speech to examine variation in the mutation of place-names in Welsh as spoken in both Wales and Patagonia. Specifically, it considers how speakers from both areas mutate (or do not mutate) place-names following the nasal mutation trigger yn 'in', through a two-step statistical approach of conditional inference trees and random forests. Results show no significant difference in how speakers from Wales and Patagonia mutate place-names in this environment, but that the radical initial consonant, speaker age, and place-name type including the geographical, linguistic, and cultural 'Welshness' of the place-name all significantly affect mutation behaviour. Furthermore, while nasal mutation is present in the data, the results also illustrate the growing use of soft mutation as an alternate
