LL-L "Phonology" 2003.03.05 (09) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 05.MAR.2003 (09) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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From: Gary Taylor <gary_taylor_98 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Phonology

Alright everyone!

Luc asked about the change in long [i:] to an [ai]
(could also here add the change of long [u:] to [au]).
The long vowels and diphthongs tend to be quite
unstable in languages, whereas shorter vowels tend to
be a lot more resilient to change. If we look at
German orthography we can see how the process took
place - the sound is today pronounced [ai] (at least
in Standard High German) but the orthography has
retained the older pronunciation [ei].

What tends to happen with long vowels is that they
rise. So [a:] will move up to [o:], this will move up
to [u:], likewise [æ:] moves up to [e:] and this moves
up to [i:]. This leads to two possible outcomes for
the original [i:] and [u:]. Either the changes will
result in a merger, or - more commonly - the quality
of these sounds will change. In the London region at
the moment, these (new) [i:] and [u:] sounds are
undergoing a further change. The former is changing
into [Ii] (a possible move towards a new [ai]) and the
latter is moving forward and being diphthongised into
something like [Yy] - under the influence of former
[o:] raising to [u:]. Hmm, confusing - I know what I
mean, anyway!

Dutch is also a good example of the instability of
long vowels, where a lot are changing into diphthongs
in different dialects, although they're still written
as monophthongs.

The original change in English started to take shape
around 1450, and the change started to occur in German
in Bavaria in the 12th century. The current shift
forward of [u:] also occurred in Scandinavian
languages where u is often pronounced close to [y:]
(mainly in Norwegian and Swedish). This happened there
around 1400.

Because of the great differences in times, I'm not
sure if there were outside influences for these
changes or if they were just coincidental natural
processes. I can't imagine that the current shift in
London [u:] could have been caused by Scandinavian
influence, however there are possible connections
between these changes in German into Dutch, as a
spread of this feature started in Bavaria.

Gary

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