LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.04.01 (07) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L]

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   L O W L A N D S - L * 01 April 2006 * Volume 07
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From: Gary Taylor <gary_taylor_98 at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L language varieties

Sandy wrote:

"Being a Scots speaker always seemed to me to give a
big advantage in
learning other languages, compared to most English
speakers. Obviously
there's certain consonants such as /x/ and /r/ that
can stand you in
good stead for some languages, but perhaps more
important is the rather
full set of undiphthongised vowels, fairly essential
for most of the
languages I've studied and from which new diphthongs
can be constructed
if necessary."

Yeah I tend to agree with you here. My biggest
giveaway that I'm English when speaking German (which
I do on a daily basis, living in Berlin) are my
vowels. German vowels to me are quite 'pure', as in
they sound like pure monophthongs or diphthongs to my
ears. My own London flavoured vowels are far from pure
- almost all my long vowels are at least slightly
diphthongised, and this also carries over when I'm
speaking foreign languages. I do try to 'tense my
mouth up' enough to speak German, but I think this is
an impossibility for Londoners. Or at least that's my
excuse...

There are a number of phonological processes that are
difficult to get rid of. I make my 't' sound slightly
like 'ts' in English, and so as not to do this in
German I usually make my 't' sound a bit too much like
'd', but at least I no longer have my surname (Taylor)
spelt with a 'z' anymore. I still can't produce a
'clear l' finally - Northern English speakers will
have an advantage over me here. My 'l' when word-final
has a definite 'u' flavour. Inserting a glottal stop
before every vowel-initial word also proves difficult
for me - I think a lot of other English accents do
this though, whereas London English usually carries
over the last letter of the previous word onto the
next one to avoid words starting with vowels. And
there are lots of other things that give my accent
away.

But saying this - it means it's very difficult for
non-Londoners to imitate a London accent convincingly.
As our beloved Dick van Dyke's 'May-ry Poppins'
showed, and more recently Johnny Depp's attempts,
although he does admittedly do a much better job

Gary

http://hometown.aol.com/taylor16471/myhomepage/index.html

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From: Rikus Kiers <kiersbv at tiscali.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.03.31 (07) [E/LS]
Stellingwarfs van Johan Veenstra

Beste Ingmar en Piet Bult kik vast ok wel even mit.

Mien eerste spontane reacties:

1. Dizze taolgroep wik biezunder weinig of van het zuud-West Drents. Ik
komme er haost toe umme te concluderen dat het dezulfde groepe is.
2. De scheldwoorden hebbe ik niet allemaol verstaon kunnen, mar dat kan ok
kommen umdat ik de pest daoran hebbe en het beslist gien verrieking van een
taol vinne en ze dus ok mar niet ontholle.
3. Ik begriep niet de Underzuukingstocht van Stellingwarfers en Friezen an
het ende. Met uutzundering van een lichte uutspraokovername vanuut het Fries
in sommige woorden zie ik niet meer verwantschap dan dat het Fries in zien
oorsprong ok een Saksische taol is. Mar de uutspraok van sommige a-klanken
hef ok veule overienkomst mit het Smilders. Ik zulle dan ok liever met de
Zuud-west Drenten wieder zuuken.
Wat maakt het Stellingwarfs nou tot een aparte vorm van het saksisch.
Behalve dan dat het staatkundig interessant is um zuch een biezundere plaots
eigen te maken in de provincie Friesland?

Ps . In mien beantwoording prebeer ik het Zuud West Drents. Van huus uut bin
ik opwaschen met het zand drents uut het Midden tot Zuud Oosten van Drenthe 

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