LL-L: "Morphophonology" LOWLANDS-L, 09.OCT.2000 (01) [E]

[R. F. Hahn]

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  L O W L A N D S - L * 09.OCT.2000 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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  A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian,
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From: Henry Pijffers [hpijffers at home.nl]
Subject: LL-L: "Morphophonology" (was "Phonology") LOWLANDS-L,
08.OCT.2000
(04) [E]

Andy wrote:
>
>"The mid-Ulster dialect...Typical features are...while an interesting
>grammatical form surviving from south-western English is the past
>participle
>with a worn-down form of the Old English prefix ge- still found in
Dutch
>and
>German. Written y in Chaucerian English and a- by the nineteenth
century
>Dorsetshire poet William Barnes, this form survives in Ulster only
when
the
>
>past participle is used after the auxiliary verb had (e.g. If he had
a-done
>
>that,...).
>
>I sometimes wonder if some of what is often presented as Ulster Scots
would
>
>better be described as Ulster English, although how one defines
contact
>varieties is open to debate.
>
That sounds interesting, in my variety of Low-Saxon, we also have that
worn-down
form of the "ge-" prefix. We also say things like "edaan" (a-done),
"eschreven" (wrote),
"elop" (walked), etc. I always thought it was some sort of weird Dutch
influence.
But reading the above, it makes me wonder, don't other varieties of
Low-Saxon
have that prefix and where does it come from?

regards,
Henry

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Morphophonology

Henry,

The past participial prefix _e-_ in your dialect is the same as _e-_ in
most Eastphalian Low Saxon (Low German) dialects (i.e., a group of
dialects
east of the Westphalian group).  Thus, e.g., _diu hest edaan_ 'thou
hast
done', _hei hett eschrieben_ 'he has written', _Hei weerd an de Heiden
iutelaivert, misshandelt un anespaiet, ..._ 'He will be delivered to
the
heathens, abused and spat upon', _Hei hett sain Volk eseihn_ 'He has
seen
his people' (Wille, Friedrich, _De Plattduitsche Baibel: Ne
Psalmeniutwahl
un et Lukas-Evangelium_, De Kennung, Beiheft 2, Soltau/Heidelberg:
Plattdüütsch in de Kark, 1994 -- Dialect of Einbeck Nord).  There are
also
some dialects (in all major groups, I believe) that have _e-_ or even
still
_ge-_, especially frequent in the hotchpotch that is called "Eastern
Low
German."

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

----------

From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Morphophonology

Andy's recent message included:

>an interesting grammatical form surviving from south-western English
is the
past participle with a worn-down form of the Old English prefix ge-
still
found in Dutch and German. Written y in Chaucerian English and a- by
the
nineteenth century Dorsetshire poet William Barnes <

"y-" was used by Spenser in the 16th century as a deliberate archaism
but
(I
have just discovered) also by Milton in the 17th century.

The anon. Cuckoo Song (ca 1250 CE) begins "Sumer is icumen in", in
Modern
English rendered as "Summer is a-coming in". Not only is the tense
changed
from past perfect to present continuous but the "worn-down" form of
"ge-"
is apparently interpreted as the prefix "a-" which has a completely
different origin. Chamber Dictionary gives "a-" as a reduced form of
"an"
or
"on" and cites two examples in standard BE of its use with a present
participle ("a-begging", "a-hunting") but I believe it is very widely
used
in this way in BE dialects.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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