PHONETIC DESCRIPTION OF SCOTTISH LANGUAGE AND DIALECTS O.E. Short Vowels. § 48. O.E. a or æ in close position (see § 29 n.) is represented by a [a] or in some cases by au, aw [&oh.]: (1) before n, ng and n + cons., as can, man, pan. ran, lang, sang, strang, thrang (busy, crowded), sank, band,. candle, hand, sand, etc. [kan, man, etc.]. (2) before ch [x], dracht (draught), fracht (freight), lach (laugh), slachter, acht (eight), acht (owned). (3) before Middle Sc. ll or l + cons. where ll and l were vocalised and absorbed by a — e.g. ca', caa or caw from call [a:,&oh.:]. See § 78.1. (4) before medial ll, as fallow, gallow(s), hallow, tallow. (5) after w, wh, as in wag, waken, want, watch, what. § 48.1. O.E. a or æ in close position becomes [ε, e] as in Eng. met or Eng. mate. (1) before sh [&sh.], sn, st, sp, ss — e.g. ash-tree, fasten [ fεsn], fast [fεst], clasp, hasp, glass, grass, (gress and girs), brass. (2) before r + cons. — e.g. arm, harm, warm, bairn, darn, harvest [herst], sharp, arrow. (3) before some other consonants — e.g. after, apple, axe, axle, path, wrath (obsol.). § 49. (1) O.E. a or æ in open position (see § 29,n.) becomes generally [ε, e] in Mod.Sc. — e.g. sale, tale, father [′feð&schwa;r], gather, cake, hammer, lame, etc. (2) O.E. æg also becomes [ε, e], as in day, brain, fair, lay, nail, tail. § 49.1. Ag- and aw- (a being in open position) become [a:], or [&oh.:] (in em. and wm.Sc.), as in draw, gnaw, haw, law, maw, saw, claw, O.E. dragan, gnagan, haga, lagu (orig. Scand.), maga, sagu, clawa. § 49.2. In early O.E. æ appears instead of a, unless when a back vowel, a, o' u, follows in the next syllable. E.g. we find dæg (day) in the sing., but dagas, daga, dagum in the pl. In the sing., g was first sounded like y [j], then like i [&sci;], æg [æj] forming later a diphthong = [e&sci;], and still later a single vowel, as we have it in our Sc. pronunciation of Eng. In the pl. forms, g [g] changed into w and then into u. The a and u formed a diphthong which later on was reduced to a single long [a] or [&oh.] sound, which we have in the St.Eng. dawn and the Mod.Sc. daw (O.E. dagian): “The cock may craw, The day may daw.” — O' Willie brewed (Burns). § 50. Scand. a is retained in close position — e.g. dag, flag-stone, caller (caldr, Flom 32), ban (curse), stang (a sting or a pole), wrang; Scand. open a becomes [ε, e] as haivel (sea-eel), gait, scaith. § 51. (1) Romance words with a [a], backet, stank (a drain), glanders, grand, chancy. See § 48. (2) Romance words with ar + cons. — e.g. cards, carry, garden. regard, marry, martyr, part. See § 48.1(2). § 52. O.E. &obreve;, m.bk.l.r. [&openo;] in close position retains on the whole its original value in n.Sc. It is identical with Ger. o in sonne (the sun) but diff'ers from St.Eng. (sth. type) o in rock, which is a much opener sound. In m. and s.Sc. this sound has generally been made more tense, and might, in many cases, be written oa [o] — e.g. rock — roak. lock — loak, box — boax. § 53. o [&openo;] in open position generally was lengthened as in St.Eng. and became oa [o] — e.g. thole, hole, foal, coal. § 54. When o comes into contact with lip consonant s like m, p, b, f, the vowel is unrounded by a process of dissimilation to a [a], hence, crop, top, sob, Tob, croft, loft, soft, become crap, tap, sab, Rab, etc. § 55. l following o is vocalised and the two form a diphthong — e.g. bowster. See § 78.2. § 56. O.E. e [ε] in closed position remains generally as in St.Eng. — e.g. bed, ebb. After w it may become a or o. See §§ 27. 1, 76.1. § 57. In open position O.E. e is lengthened and has the sound of a in mate [e] in some dialects, and ee [i] in others. See § 88(3). § 58. O.E. i, h.fr.]. [&sci;] also O.E. y, h.fr.l.r.; Older Sc, l. y, e; Mod.Sc. i and e [&sci;, &scirtail;, ε]. § 58.1. ln Sc. speech this sound is very generally made to approach the sound of e as in St.Eng. red. It is often so written in dialect. The same tendency is seen in Middle Sc., where it is sometimes written with the letter i or e and sometimes with the letter y [&scirtail;] = h.fr.l.lrd. Before r and ch [x] the tongue seems to be flattened and a vague sound [&scirtail;], something similarto [&schwa;] in St.Eng. her, is produced. Acoustically it approaches the sound of the vowel [&turnv;] in Sc.; hence we have the gradation [&sci;, &scirtail;, &scirtail;, &schwa;, &turnv;], and a tendency in many of the dialects for these sounds to interchange because of their acoustic and organic resemblance. English listeners accused the famous Dr Chalmers, the Free Church philanthropist and divine, of saying: “He that is fulthy, let him be fulthy stull” (D.S.C.S., p. 108, note). What he probably said was: “He that is [f&id.lþ&scirtail;] let him be [f&id.lþ&scirtail; st&id.l], using a sound between St.Eng. hill and St.Eng. hull. § 59. In contact with w and wh, i [&sci;] in Sc. speech tends to become [&turnv;]. Thus will, wit, win, wish, whip, whin, whisper, whisky, witch, wind are pronounced wull, wut, wun, etc.