Final Voicing and Vowel Length in Welsh

Abstract

Abstract The great majority of Welsh word-final plosives are devoiced lenes (fully voiced before a following vowel or sonorant), with a long vowel preceding. There are also a certain number of words – nearly all borrowed – ending in a fortis plosive, voiceless in all circumstances, with a short vowel preceding. There are quite a few minimal pairs where a long vowel + lenis plosive is opposed to a short vowel + fortis plosive. Arguments for the primacy of voicing and of vowel length, respectively, are presented. A solution is put forward which specifies plosives with regard to voicing in the lexicon and which provides rules (a) doubling any voiceless plosive after a stressed vowel and (b) lengthening any stressed vowel in the context before up to one consonant. A number of exceptions are discussed. As a linguist, the author prefers a solution which requires the specifying of perhaps 60 or 80 exceptions as exceptional over one which would call for at least one extra feature specification for every word in the lexicon.