open syllable lengthening

[Lillian Balsvik]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
In "The Development of Qunantity as Evidence of Western European Linguistic
Interdependence", Alf Sommerfelt writes on open syllable lengthening (OSL):

"This change coincided with a change in poetry and the introduction of the
dance song, the ballad" (p. 82 in _Diachronic and Synchronic Aspects of
Language, Selected Articles_ 1962).

He writes this right after discussing OSL in Norwegian, but I'm not sure
whether he means that these two changes coincided in all languages where
OSL applied or only in Norwegian.

Sommerfelt does not say that one of these changes is caused by the other. I
am left wondering, however, if he had some private theory that these two
changes were interrelated.

I am rather puzzled by this, and being fully aware that it is a bit too
late to ask Sommerfelt himself, I pass this on to members of HISTLING.

Lillian Balsvik