LL-L "Phonology" 2002.01.20 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 20.JAN.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

Dear Lowlanders,

Under "Resources" I wrote:

> I thought some of you might be interested in viewing a web page on
> which I display the anthem (hymn, "Üüs Söl'ring Lön'") of the North
> Frisian Isle of Söl'/Sylt, with the original Frisian text side by
> side with my English translation ("Our Homeland Sylt"), and you
> can listen to the tune (my MIDI file) as well. There is also a
> brief introduction to the island and its linguistic and cultural
> heritage. Please also check out the links on the bottom of the
> page if you are interested in Söl'/Sylt, especially in its
> _Biikebrennen_ ceremony. One of the sites has RealAudio files of
> live recordings of public singing of the anthem during one of the
> _Biikebrennen_ ceremonies, even video clips.

> The URL of my anthem page:
<http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/sylt-anthem.htm>

> As many of you know, the Söl'/Sylt Frisian is the northernmost of
> the remaining insular North Frisian varieties. Among its most
> striking features are the development of /d/ to palatalization
> (e.g., _Lönd_ > _Lön'_ 'land', _hölden_ > _höl'en_ 'to hold',
> _höndert_ > _hön'ert_ 'hundred') and the realization of older /ð/
> (which used to be and sometimes still is written as a barred _d_)
> to [r] (e.g., _Tið_ > _Tir_ 'time', _Liðen_ > _Liren_ 'people',
> _Staiðer_ > _Stairer_ 'steds', 'places'). Perhaps we have
> subscribers who can explain this better and in more detail.

In his dissertation _An Ecological Reference Grammar of Sölring North
Frisian_ (U. C. Santa Barbara, 1998), Steven Lasswell, a former LL-L
subscriber, writes (pp. 91-92):

(I am using the character _ð_ (eth) to replace what in Söl'ring tends to
be written as a crossed _d_, i.e., a _d_ with a bar through its top
stave.  But I represent it linguistically as [D] and /D/, using the
SAMPA method.  Lasswell uses the _ð_ in linguistic notation and the
crossed _d_ in Söl'ring orthography.  My notes are found within curly
brackets: { }.  For those who are not aware of this already, these
symbols represent an interdental voiced fricative, like "th" in English
_then_, _weather_ and _bathe_.)

===start quote===

Notable historical development is evidenced for /ð/.  Möller
(1916:20-21) characterizes initial [D] as having developed to [d] (and
earlier initial [T] {theta} to [t]), and final [D] as having become "ein
reduziertes *r*" (a reduced *r* -- today [A {= upturned a with
sub-breve}]).  Presumably reflecting his own pronunciation, Jap Peter
Hansen in the early 19th century wrote *biið* and *hiið* for 'both' and
'heather', respectively, and although the interdental fricative was
heard in the conservative eastern village of Muasem {German Morsum} a
century later, *hiir* 'hair' and *hiið* 'heath' had become virtually
homophonous ("so gut wie gleichlautend") among younger speakers,
particularly in the less conservative village of Kairem {German
Keitum}.  At that time, according to Möller, [D] was regularly heard
only in medial position, in words like *bröðer* 'brother', *kluaðer*
'clothes', and *weðer* 'weather' (spelled *brörer*, *kluarer*, *werer*
in Mungard 1909, however).  Today, the medial consonants in all these
words is [l] in the speech of a wide majority of Sölring.  Willkommen
(1991:41,221) encountered medial [ð] both word-internally and in an
intervocalic environment resulting from occurrence of a clitic pronoun
(*hi sair* 'he said' as *sair'(e)r* 'said he' ['sEAD at A]).  In the
present database, free variation between [l] and [D] is heard in e.g.
three realizations of the word *feðer* 'feather; spring' withon a short
stretch of discourse by the same speaker.[1]

In final position, /d/ has also undergone a range of developments
historically.  Similar to the development of final [D] was the
coalescence of final postvocalic [d] into "reduced *r*": *bêr* (n.)
'bed', *gur* 'good', *heer* 'had', *luar* 'lead (n.)', *sair* 'said', a
development recent enough at the beginning of the 20th century that
Möller included the older forms (*bêd*, *gud*, *heed*, *luad*, *said*)
alongside the newer ones.  After [r], final [d] > [t], as in *biirt*
'beard', *buurt* 'board', *guart* 'garden', *hart* 'hard', *swêrt*
'sword', and *uurt* 'word'.  In much earlier developments, final [d]
following [n] or [l] was lost, resulting in either (a) dental or (b)
palatal articulation of the newly-final consonant, as in (a) *Söl'*
'Söl' {German *Sylt*} and *Söl'ring* 'Sölring' {adjective, or adjectival
noun pertaining to *Söl*}, *jil* 'money' (Gmc. **geld-a-n*) *wil'*
'wanted' (all with [{l with dental diacritic}]); *hun'* 'hand', *hün'*
'dog, hound', and *pün'* 'pound' (all with [{n with dental diacritic}]),
and (b) *milj* 'mild', *skilj* 'fault (Gmc. **skuldi-*)', *wilj* 'wild';
*binj* 'bind', *blinj* 'blind', *finj* 'find', and *winj* 'wind'.
Dentality of articulation has since lost distinctiveness, with the
result that words like *jil'* 'money' and *sen'* 'sin' (Gmc.
**sun(d)jô*) have become homophoneous with *jil* 'eel' and *sen* 'sun'
(the latter is also the form of the non-2nd/non-3rd singular present
tense form of 'be' as well as 'sense'; cf. 4.1.1.).  (In Möller's
orthography, the dental phonemes were marked as such by the apostrophe,
which was dropped as a result of the latest spelling reform in 1975; see
1.1.3.5.)

{...}

{Footnote [1]:} The development ð > l would appear to be at least
partially influenced by the realization of postvocalic <d>, namely as
[D(l)], in Standard Danish; see Jespersen 1877-1899:246-247 and, for a
discussion of circumstantial evidence for the development in Sölring,
Willkommen 1991:40-43.  In Fering-Öömrang {the North Frisian varieties
of the neighboring islands known in German as *Fehr* and *Amrum*
respectively}, cognates of words with medial <ð> in Sölring have <l>
(*weler* 'again, against', *öler* 'other') or <d> (*weder* 'weather',
*bruuder* 'brother', *kluader* 'clothes'.

===end quote===

Please allow me to add a couple of personal notes here:

(1) Sylt, like most of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, used to be under
Danish rule, and many residents used to know Danish (also Southern
Jutish), German and Low Saxon (Low German) in addition to their own
North Frisian.  (I believe that a few of them still do.)

(2) I have a hunch that the development of /D/ to /l/ -- pretty much
from one generation of speakers to another -- was due to "Germanized
perception."  The lax [D] realization of intervocalic and postvocalic
_d_ in Standard Danish tends to be perceived as [l] by German speakers.
In other words, I believe that what to the preceding generation of
Söl'ring speakers was a distinctive phoneme (/D/, if not /d/) came to be
perceived by the following, more strongly Germanized generation as [l]
and came to be thusly phonemized.  In short, I assume that the rapid
loss of the voiced interdental in Söl'ring was due to German influence.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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