LL-L "Morphology" 2005.11.12 (01) [E]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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   L O W L A N D S - L * 12 November 2005 * Volume 01
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2005.11.11 (04) [E]

Don't forget that Frisian uses diminutives a lot as well, so Franconian
influence is less likely there. And these are not borrowings from Dutch
into Frisian, because the Frisian diminutives are quite different from the
Dutch ones, and from the surrounding Low Saxon dialects too.
Standard Dutch has: -tje, -je, neighbouring Low Saxon of Stellingwarvia,
Drenthe and Overijssel: -tien, -ien, -chien, but Frisian -ke, -kje etc.
All of these do not cause umlaut, contrary to the German and most German
Low Saxon diminutive, as well as Southernmore Low Saxon in the
Netherlands, Eastern Brabant/South Guelders Dutch dialects and Limburgian.
The older Dutch (Low West Franconian) diminutive was *-kîn, in Middle
Dutch still -kijn, hence the patalization to -tje, Afr. -tjien, but Old
Frisian had -ka. The Southern half of the Netherlands still has almost
exclusively -ken, though the South West has palatalized forms as well,
as Zeeuws -tjie. The colloquial Dutch of Holland has -ie in stead of -je.

For the Eastern parts of Low Saxon, I think the origin may lay in the
Netherlands (including Flanders), because it's a well known fact that some
of these areas were settled from the Northern and especially the Southern
Netherlands (i.e. present day Belgium). The Slavonic and/or Baltic use may
have supported the use of diminutives there.

Why some dialects of Low Saxon don't use diminutives a lot is hard to say.
Maybe it does not have to do with origins or influences from other
languages, but simply with traditions: if you didn't here them from your
parents, you wouldn't use them yourself. Exactly the same reason why some
Germans say Samstag, and others Sonnabend for Saturday.

Groeten
Ingmar

>From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Morphology
>
>Tagchen, Jonny!
>
>> Obviously (and that's my question and interest) it's a clear matter of
>> Frankish influences??
>
>I've thought a lot about this myself, and I have come to the conclusion
that
>it may be impossible to tell, that at best we can speculate.  In any
case, I
>hardly think that there is any single cause for this.
>
>You need to take into consideration non-Germanic language contacts as
well.
>In the east you have contacts with Slavonic and Baltic.  Both groups
abound
>with diminutive forms.  Lithuanian (which belongs to the Baltic group) is
>particularly well known for its love of diminutives, already at the Old
>Lithuanian stage.  It has numerous choices in expressing deminution; e.g.
>brother (brolis) -> brolelis, broliukas, brolytis, brolužis, brolužėlis,
>brolutytis, broliukėlis, brolutaitis, etc.  (Doesn't _brolutaitis_ sound
>like a disease--*_brolutitis_?)  In the Prussian region--that covers most
of
>what is now partly in Northern Poland and most of Russian-held
>Kaliningrad--Slavonic and Germanic language varieties have Baltic
substrates
>or influences.  So, the great love of diminutive forms in Eastern
Prussia's
>Low Saxon and German varieties are more likely than anything to go back to
>Baltic, perhaps in conjunction with Slavonic, given long-standing close
>contacts between speakers of Low Saxon and Kashubian in what is now
Northern
>Poland.
>
>At the western end, there are Romance varieties, all of which, too, abound
>with diminutive forms, going all the way back to Latin (both Classical and
>Vulgar) which uses diminution not only impromptu but also very widely in
>creating new lexical items.  Latin and some of its descendants had
enormous
>influences on the Germanic varieties west of the Rhine.
>
>The Saxon heartland, like Scandinavia, was never occupied by Romans and in
>the early days were a long way away from direct influences from Latin.
>There were early contacts with Slavonic speakers but never on a massive
>scale until colonization of the east beginning in earnest with the 12th
>century.  Perhaps relative scarsity of diminution in Low Saxon, and also
in
>Scandinavian, is due to not having been massively influenced by Romance,
>Slavonic and Baltic.
>
>English and Scots, of course, do use diminutives and, generally speaking,
>more than does Low Saxon.  Diminutives have been involved in lexical
>creation as well (e.g., English "kitten," "kitty" and "panties," Scots
>_mannie_, _wifie_ and _kittlin_).  However, it is true that this is hardly
>anything compared with what's going on in Low Franconian--especially in
>Dutch and, even more so, in Afrikaans. 

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