LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 03.SEP.2000 (04) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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  L O W L A N D S - L * 03.SEP.2000 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Vowel shifts"

As we ken, the'r the spellins "fit", "wid" &c in Scots that whiles
raivels us "Central" spaekers an gars us write them *fuit an *wuid an the
like.

A'v juist been leukin at Professor Aitken's essay "How to Pronounce
Older Scots" in "Bards And Makars" (University of Glasgow Press 1977, ISBN
0
85261 132 3), whaur the'r a explanation o whaur thae soonds comes fi:

"...the early shortening (earlier than that of the Vowel-length Rule)
of vowel 7 to yields vowel 15 in _fit_ 'foot', _sit_ 'soot', _nit_ 'nut',
_pit_ 'put', _wid_ 'wood', _ither_ 'other', _brither_ and _mither_ and
other
words..."

A wis wonderin if it wad be possible ti big a fair comprehensive list o
sic wirds for reference, espeecially bi Central spaekers, that wad help ti
stop the kin o daft spellins we aftwhiles see. A'v pit thegither aa the
anes
A can think on, an A wonder if folk could hae a leuk an add ony mair?
Asweel, see if the'r ony A'v got wrang, that we should redd oot - A juist
made
this list up fae what A think micht be richt - the'r likely A fair few
that's no richt. A'v pit the English an aa ti mak it claer what wird's
ettlt
(thame marked wi aisterisks is for ornar spelt the English wey even in
Scots):

fit       foot
sit       soot
nit       nut
pit       put
wid       wood
ither     other
brither   brother
mither    mother
*sin      sun, son
simmer    summer
sindry    sundry
hinny     honey
clister   cluster
rin       run
*titch    touch
*bit      but
hizzy     hussy
nidge     nudge
wird      word
wirk      work (verb)

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

----------

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

Sandy, Lowlanders,

I have long been wondering about the Scots "vowel shift" you explained
above.

Looking at it "cold," it seems to me to be a simple case of "un-rounding"
of short vowels.  Basically, this seems to be a shift from short /u/ to
short /i/, phonetically [U] to [I] (as in English _put_ to _pit_).
However, at second thought, it may not be quite so simple, and I have a
couple of questions about it.

(I am assuming that this also applied in cases such as _mither_, _brither_,
_ither_, _wird_ and _wirk_, that the vowel in these word was also /u/, thus
*['mUT at r] > ['mIT at r], *['?UT at r] > ['?IT at r]  (as in some English dialects).
If this was not the case, a more complex rule applied.)

This must be a peculiarly powerful shift rule, because it affected /u/
adjacent to a labial consonant; e.g., _mither_ and _simmer_.  (Bear in mind
that it is quite common for unrounded vowels to become rounded in this sort
of environment; e.g., Low Saxon (Low German) _bün_ 'am', _sprütten_ 'to
spray', _pütten_ 'to dig a pit', cf. German _bin_, _spritzen_, English
_pit_.)

Question 1: Did this apply as a general rule, i.e., in all cases where an
earlier short /u/ [U] may be assumed?
Standard English is not a reliable guide here, because it often has a short
vowel where Scots (and some English dialect) appears to have a long vowel,
e.g., _good_ = _guid_, _book_ = _buik_.

Question 2: Might this have been a two-step process: (1) fronting and (2)
unrounding (e.g., /muTer/ > */müTer/ > /miTer/, i.e., *['mUT at r] > *['mYT at r]
> ['mIT at r]).
This sort of two-step process makes sense and is known to have happened
elsewhere, in Eastern German and Yiddish dialects.  In Scots itself there
is the case of an apparent shift from a long /u/ to a long /ü/, as in
_guid_ [gy:d] (?) and _buik_ [by:k] (?).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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