LL-L: "Morphophonology" LOWLANDS-L, 11.OCT.2000 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 11.OCT.2000 (07) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Marco Evenhuis [evenhuis at zeelandnet.nl]
Subject: LL-L: "Morphophonology" LOWLANDS-L, 11.OCT.2000 (01) [E]

Niels wrote:

> The apical [r] really seems to be on the retreat everywhere in Europe. In
> France
> as well as in Germany and even in northern Italy around Turin. Around
> Groningen
> in Nederland it is still holding on, and especially in Vlaams, I think it
has
> a
> real stronghold because it is contrasting the French [R]. It would be nice
to
> hear a Flemish comment on that.

A Zeelandic comment on that: the apical [r] si still very strong here, even
among young people that don't speak the Zeelandic language anymore. I think
that in Zeeland the velarized r that is almost predominant in Standard Dutch
now (I hardly hear anything else on Dutch television), is only popular among
a part of the teenagers in a few larger towns and cities. I believe the
spaical [r] is even stronger in East and West Flanders as well as in most
other parts of northern Belgium, since the velarized r is considered
typically Dutch there.
Another r, the French [R],which used to be the normal r in a lot of urban
dialects of Zeelandic, is disappearing rapidly though. And I believe it's on
the retreat in Flemish urban dialects (Ghent!) as well.

Marco

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From: "Ian James Parsley" <parsleyij at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L: "Morphophonology" LOWLANDS-L, 09.OCT.2000 (01) [E]

With reference to the 'a-' prefix in Ulster dialect:

Firstly, it is open to question whether this form exists at all. 'If
he had a-done' may actually be a false rendering of 'If he would'a
done' - the 'a' may actually be a shortened form of 'have', and this
latter form will be perfectly familiar to American readers.

Secondly, if we agree it does exist, it does not appear in
Ulster-Scots literature. It is therefore difficult to attribute its
origin to Ulster-Scots. There appears little doubt to me this is an
Ulster-English form, which has since possibly entered Ulster-Scots.

In writing, I use this prefix to distinguish between 'haed' used as a
past form (in forming the pluperfect) and 'haed' used as the synthetic
conditional form of 'have'. Thus, 'A haed driv' is 'I had driven', and
'A haed a-driv' is 'I would have driven'. With verbs that take 'be'
(usually intransitive verbs and some copulatives), the synthetic
conditional form ('wur') does not appear in modern speech or
literature (thus 'A wus went' for 'I had gone' and 'A wud be went' for
'I would have gone'). However, in formal documents I do tend to retain
it with the 'a-' prefix ('A wur a-went'). This is a questionable
usage, however, and I may change it.

This has no effect on the 'passive progressive' mentioned in a recent
mail of mine (e.g. 'a-steeran' for 'being disturbed'), which is a very
real feature of modern Ulster-Scots speech, although there is no doubt
it is becoming limited to a closed set of verbs these days.

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

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