LL-L "Orthography" 2002.03.14 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 14.MAR.2002 (01) * 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: Orthography

Hello from my brand-new computer!

Marco Evenhuis <evenhuis at zeelandnet.nl> wrote under "Lexicon":

> * when I come to think of it, in Zeeuws we allways spell 'een' where
> English
> has a and an. The pronounciation however is very much the same as in
> English, so the above could also be spelled as 'e puut' and 'een
> akketesse'.
> Does this also apply for other Lowlands languages?

I understand that this is also the case in Afrikaans where you write
<'n> but most people pronounce it [@] (as a schwa, similar to English
"a").  I'm not totally sure about the ins and outs of this, for instance
if it is pronounced [@n] before a noun that starts with a vowel.
Perhaps our Afrikaans-speaking friends can enlighten us further.  Also
bear in mind the distinct possibility that Afrikaans, like many or most
other overseas "Dutch"-based language varieties, has been said to owe
more to Zeelandic than to Dutch (i.e., _Hollands_).

In Low Saxon (Low German), too, at least in Northern Germany, many
people write the indefinite article as <een>.  (This is a sort of
idealized spelling I believe, probably also in Zeelandic.)  However, you
pronounce it [?EIn] (or in some dialects [?aIn]) only in very formal,
deliberate and slow speech modes, or in singing, and of course when it
is "stressed" and thus means 'one'.  The most common pronunciation of it
is a syllabic /n/, and many or most people, myself included, write it as
<'n>.  Actually, it has allophones, i.e., in fluent, fast speech modes
it assimilates to the beginning of the noun that follows it.  Before
velars (/g/ and /k/) it is pronounced as a syllabic "ng" sound ([N=]),
e.g., _'n Gaarn_ [N= gQ:3n] 'a garden', _'n Kind_ [N= kI.nt] 'a child'.
Before labials (/m/, /b/, /p/, /f/ and /v/) it is pronounced as a
syllabic "m"; e.g., _'n Mark_ [m= ma:k] 'a mark', _'n Book_ [m= boUk] 'a
book', _'n Pogg_ [m= pOx] 'a frog', _'n Fiedel_ [m= 'fi:dl=] 'a fiddle',
'a violine', _'n Wulk_ [m= vU.lk] 'a cloud'.  Elsewhere it is pronounced
as a syllabic "n", in more deliberate speech modes in *all*
environments.  The same applies in Missingsch (i.e., German dialects
with Low Saxon substrates).

Many people write this article as <'n> anywhere but the beginning of a
sentence where they write it as <Een>.  Obviously, they do so because
they think they would have to capitalize the <'n> to <'N> at the
beginning of a sentence, and they do not like it.  Few people write it
like that.  Personally I began using the Afrikaans method of starting a
sentence with <'n>.  However, in the German-based systems this is not as
clear, because nouns are always capitalized while in Afrikaans they are
not.  The system is apparent only where (_een_ >) _'n_ functions as an
impersonal pronoun (which in German, Dutch and some Low Saxon dialects
is _man_); e.g., _'n Kann dat nich weten_ "One can not know that" = 'You
never know', where _'n_ precedes an auxiliary verb that would otherwise
not be capitalized.  So now I am no longer sure how best to write it.
Of course, the problem would be solved by adopting the Afrikaans method
if these silly German-based systems for Low Saxon were abandoned ... But
that is a different pot of hot potatoes ... <Sigh>  As the saying goes,
_Wat de Buer nich kennt, dat fritt he nich_ (Dutch-based spelling _Wat
dei boer nich kent, dat vrit hei nich_), "The peasant won't eat what he
doesn't know."

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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