LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 06.OCT.2000 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 06.OCT.2000 (07) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Stefan Israel [stefansfeder at yahoo.com]
Subject: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L

Ron wrote:

> Given Críostóir's question about what seems to be a case of
> palatalization of
> /k/ or of "j intrusion" in Ulster Scots, and given Ian's
> explanation that this
> is likely an imported Northeastern English feature (and I
> assume it still
> exists in some of those dialects of English), I am wondering
> if this can be
> attributed to Scandinavization (going back to the Viking
> invasion).

Palatalization is one of the most common changes in languages
around the world, and it does not seem to me that palatalization
in the British Isles can be attributed to Norse:

The Scandinavian languages have palatalization (except Danish,
which shows traces of earlier palatalization), but this
palatalization started in the late 1200's, centuries after the
Viking invasion (cf. Einar Haugen: Scandinavian Language
Structures).

Palatalization happened independently in Ingveonic/North Sea
Germanic c. 400 AD, in Vulgar Latin (300's AD?), repeatedly in
Russian, in Greek some 3000 years ago, etc. etc.
For that matter, you'll sometimes hear young Americans say
"cyool" and "oh my gyod", which is another example of
palatalization appearing on its own.

The Lowland languages outside of Dutch show palatalization
already in their earliest forms (Platt did too, into the
1200's), with enough similarities to indicate that their
ancestral language had begun palatalizing; Scandinavian didn't
start palatalizing in time to affect English etc.

I don't know enough about Celtic palatalization, but given that
Old English already had palatalization, it might be difficult to
show definite Celtic influence.

A central question is: can anyone find old records/dictionaries
etc. that indicate when the palatalization began?  Is it a new
or old feature?
Palatals tend to be unstable, turning into another sound within
a few centuries, particularly into ch, sh, ts, s, etc., though
occasionally ky (and gy, ty etc.) remain stable for many
centuries, e.g. Icelandic (stable for over 700 years).

Stefan Israel
stefansfeder at yahoo.com

----------

From: "Ian James Parsley" <parsleyij at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 06.OCT.2000 (02) [E]

Ron wrote:

> Of course, consonant palatalization adjacent to front vowels, not
unlike that
> in Slavic, is also a Celtic feature, particularly in the Goidelic
group, so
> there is a slight chance that the Midland dialects have this as a
part of a
> Celtic substrate.

I would suggest the other way around, it would appear more obvious
that Celtic languages have this as a Germanic substrate. But I profess
no expertise on the subject.

Best wishes,
-------------------
Ian James Parsley

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