LL-L "Phonology" 2005.11.04 (02) [E]

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04 November 2005 * Volume 02
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2005.11.03 (13) [E]

Reinhard wrote:
"Fortunately, we don't seem to have such a "problem" in the Lowlands
area. Or do we?"

Or maybe we don't have such a "problem" ANYMORE in the Lowlands area.
I mean, look at all words with final vowels -a, -o, -i, -u, -e in
Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old English, Old High German, and compare them
with their contemporary equivalents: right, all these vowels have
disappeared without a trace, or in some languages under certain circum-
stances became schwa. Who says these weren't voiceless vowels as well,
or that they went through a voiceless stadium before disappearing?
Exactly the same as in European Portuguese, which seems too follow the
route French did many centuries ago. And maybe the Slavonic languages
loosing its jers, and colloquial Arabic has lost many a final vowel too.
Ingmar


>> R. F. Hahn:
>> "Yes, vowels *can* be voiceless, absurd though this may appear.  In
>> other words, they are whispered.  (When you whisper you actually use
>> only voiceless vowels.)  The generally best known cases of vowel
>> devoicing are in Japanese (e.g., /site/ _shite_ -> _shte_, /imasu/
>> _imasu_ -> _imas_). Listen to ordinary speech in Portuguese of
>> Portugal!  Most of the time you hear only the vowels of syllables with
>> primary stress (although native speakers claim to hear all of them,
>> while they may only *know* they are there); e.g., _desculpe_ sounding
>> like _dshkuwp_ to our ears.
>>
>> Fortunately, we don't seem to have such a "problem" in the Lowlands
>> area. Or do we?"

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

Ingmar,

That's very astute of you.  Now that you say it I wholeheartedly agree. 
Thanks for reminding me.

In French and Portuguese underlying but usually "silenced" _-e_ (or _-a_) 
comes to be pronounced when people enunciate clearly, call or sing.  In 
French and varieties of that ilk, old masculin _-o_ (> _-e_ = Latin _-us_) 
was first to go and seems to have disappeared, i.e., is no longer 
underlying, while feminine (_-a_ >) _-e_ still surfaces under the above 
mentioned circumstances.  So there seems to be a two-stage vowel reduction, 
both involving schwa: (1) masculine _-o_ > _-e_ > -0, (2) feminine _-a_ > 
_-e_.

Something similar seems to have happened in Dutch and Low Saxon varieties. 
In most of them, the endings have truly disappeared.  In some Low Saxon 
dialects, _-e_ is preserved while in others it has "disappeared."  In many 
of the latter, it appears to me that it is underlyingly still there, 
resulting in a "drawl tone" and non-application of final devoicing; e.g.

hase ["hQ:z@] ~ haas' [hQ::/z] 'hare'
vrage ["frQ:G@] ~ vraag' [frQ::/G'] 'question'
bruyde ["bry:(d)@] ~ bruyd' [bry::/(d)] 'brides'
luyde ["ly:(d)@] ~ bruyd' [ly::/(d)] 'people'
mage ["mQ:G@] ~ maag' [mQ::/G] 'stomach'
leyge ["lE:/IG@] ~ leyg' [lE:IG] 'low', 'inferior', 'bad'
boyse ["b9:/Iz@] ~ boys' [b9:Iz] 'angry', 'evil'
duve ["du:v@] ~ [du::/v] 'dove', 'pigeon'
loywe ["l9:/v@] ~ loyw' [l9:Iv] 'lion'
moyde ["m9:/I(d)@] ~ moyd' [m9:I(d)] 'tired', 'sleepy'
syte ["zi:t@] ~ zyt [zi::/t] 'side', 'page'
hoype ["h9:/Ip@] ~ hoyp [h9:Ip] '(I) hope'

Mind you, the difference is that in the afore-mentioned cases voicelessness 
was caused by voiceless consonants on both sides in unstressed syllables. 
In the cases of Romance and these Germanic varieties, unstressed syllables 
are one condition too, and the other is final position, i.e., assimilation 
to following voicelessness, namely that of a pause, or silence.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron 

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