LL-L "Phonology" 2003.04.09 (04) [E]

Wed Apr 9 17:18:09 UTC 2003

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From: Gavin.Falconer at gmx.net <Gavin.Falconer at gmx.net>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2003.04.09 (03) [E]

As far as I know, the change from wh- to f- occurred along the border
between Gaelic- and Scots-speaking areas in the Middle Ages because the
Gaels found
it hard to pronounce the former.  Interestingly, there is also the word
"fuisce" in Irish, which is a Gaelicised version of the Scots word (it is
sometimes used instead of the native Irish word, "uisce beatha".  Spellings
such as
"phwat" for "what" are common in dialogue in Hiberno-English literature.  As
it happened, I was talking to two Italian English-language students recently
who completely failed to understand my Scottish wh- and thought I was saying
f- too.

--
All the best,
Gavin

Gavin Falconer

Belfast: 02890 657935
Dublin: 00353 (0)1 831 9089
Work: 00353 (0)1 618 3386
Mobile: 0779 173 0627
Fax:  001 954 301 7991

"Wovon man nicht reden kann, darÃ¼ber muss man
schweigen."

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

Folks, I want to solicit your input on another topic.

In many, if not most, Northern Lowlands Saxon (Low German) dialects,
aspiration is applied only to *initial* voiceless stops directly preceding
vowels, unlike most England English dialects and Standard German where
aspiration is not restricted to initial position; e.g.,

England English <totter> ['t_hOt_h3`] (~ ['t_hOt_s3`])
   <later> ['lEIt_h3`] ~ ['lEIt_s3`]
Standard German: <Theater> [t_he'?a:t_h3`] 'theater'
Lowlands Saxon: <Theater> [t_he'?Q:t3`] 'theater'

Compare American English where the same aspiration rule as in LS appears to
apply:

American English <totter> ['t_hQ.t3`]
   <later> [lEIt=r]

Here the second (intervocalic) [t] tends to be realized as what is known as
the "Americal flap/tap," a quick tap of the tongue tip against the alveolar
ridge (not unlike Japanese <r>: <ra> ã‚‰, <re> ã‚Œ, <ri> ã‚ , <ro> ã‚, <ru> ã‚‹).
The same realization can be heard in LS dialects (such as in <Theater>
[t_he'?Q:t3`] ).

Many people (mostly to non-native speakers) perceive this unaspirated
inervocalic /t/  as [d].  This is why in LS (which has no official
orthographic standard) you will find alternative spelling with <t> and <d>
(not only intervocalically but also after /n/ and /l/); e.g.,

Vatter ~ Vadder ['fat3`] 'father'
later ~ lader ['lQ:t3`] 'later'
tweete ~ tweede ['tvE.Ite] '(the) second'
teihnte ~ teihnde ['t_ha.Inte] '(the) tenth'
hulten ~ hulden ['hU.lt=n] 'wooden'

To tell you the truth, I too sometimes do not know if to write <t> or <d>,
because the two sounds are very similar, if not often identical, namely in
dialects in which vocalic/sonorant influences cause voicing, thus ...

Vatter ~ Vadder ['fad3`] 'father'
later ~ lader ['lQ:d3`] 'later'
tweete ~ tweede ['tvE.Ide] '(the) second'
teihnte ~ teihnde ['t_ha.Inde] '(the) tenth'
hulten ~ hulden ['hU.ld=n] 'wooden'

If such a sound occurs after /n/ and /t/ we can be sure that it is
underlyingly /t/, because /d/ assimilates in such environments; e.g., ...

Kind [k_hI.nt] 'child' > Kinner ['k_hIn3`] 'children'
old [?o.l(t)] 'old' > Ã¶ller ['?Å“l3`] 'older'

(In a phonemically based orthography these should be written <kinder> and
<Ã¶lder> respectively, and the speaker would apply the assimilation rule.)

It is oftentimes more difficult to distinguish /t/ from /d/ in intervocalic
position.

Incidentally, the same phenomenon can be found in Missingsch, i.e., German
dialects on LS substrates with predominantly LS phonology.  Thus, when
people write in Missingsch they tend to write the sound in questions as <d>,
e.g., <Alder> ['?a.lt3`] ~ ['?a.ld3`] 'old (one)', 'old chap', <kÃ¤lder>
['kE.lt3`] ~ ['kE.ld3`] 'colder', <under> ['?U.nt3`] ~ ['?U.nd3`] (~ <unner>
['?U.n3`]) 'under' (cf., Standard German <Alter> ['?alt(_h)@`], <kÃ¤lter>
['k_hElt(_h)@`], <unter> ['?Unt@`], LS /older/ <Oller> [?O.l3`] ~ /older/
<Oler> ['?ol3`], /kÃ¶lder/ <kÃ¶ller> ['k_hÅ“l3`], /under/ <unner> ['?U.n3`]).

Questions:

(1) Do similar or identical phonological rules apply in some English
dialects of the British Isles?

(2) Have American dialects inherited or invented these rules?

(3) Might there be a (Saxon) connection between this set of rules in English
and Lowlands Saxon, or is their application in both languages coincidental
(i.e., was developed independently)?

Thanks for thinking about it!

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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