LL-L "Phonology" 2006.01.15 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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   L O W L A N D S - L * 15 January 2006 * Volume 01
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2006.01.14 (04) [E]

> From: Heather Rendall <HeatherRendall at compuserve.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2006.01.14 (02) [E]
>
> Message text written by INTERNET:lowlands-l at LOWLANDS-L.NET
>
>> Vexing, though, is the case of "to an' fro", where I would have expected
>
> *"to an' vro".  Why is this one exempt?  Is it because of /fr/ (in
> spite of
>
> /fl/ > /vl)?<
>
>
> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Phonology
>
> You may be right.  I checked his stuff some more, and there seem to be
> inconsistencies.

I don't see any inconsistencies in that (The Geate A-Vallen to). I
sifted out your capitalised words in a text editor then after checking
and removing things with embedded f/v/s/z I sorted by the second letter,
leaving this list:

SAILEN FAITHVUL VALL VALLEN VASTER FATHER SEA FEACE FEAIR FEAIRER FEAST
FED ZEE SEEM’D VELL ZEND ZIDE VIELD VIELDS VIER FIGHTEN ZINGEN VINGERS
VISH FLOW'RY FOAMY VOE ZOME FONDLY SOON VOOT SORROW ZOT SOULS VOUND
VO’KS FREE FROCK VROM FROWNS FRUIT FRUIT'S VU'ST VULL ZUMMER ZUN ZUNDAY
ZUNSHEEN ZWIMS VWOLD ZWUNG

As you see, each word has one and only one spelling.

A general rule in West Country dialects is that words that started as
French or Latin borrowings won't have the [s]>[z], [f]>[v] processes. To
me this suggests that these processes have been unproductive for
centuries and that therefore the large number of "Anglo-Saxon" words
which don't show this process could simply be explained as later
borrowings from more standard English. Hence "vrom" vs "to an' fro"
being explained by the fact that the idiom "to an' fro" might be a
borrowing.

There are some well-known cases of the process in question having some
semantic significance. For example "zee" for "see", but "sea" for "sea",
and "vall" for "topple" but "fall" for "autumn".

Barnes was such a language engineer that I'm inclined to think that if
he spells a word a certain way it's because it was actually pronounced
that way. If there were any inconsistencies in his dialect writing it
seems likely to me that they'd reflect inconsistencies in actual speech.

Barnes was at the forefront of the movement for re-germanising English.
He wanted to eradicate all latinisms from the language, replacing words
such as "preface" with inventions like "foreword" (one of the few
surviving traces of the movement in English today). It's interesting
that he wasn't into purging his dialect of standard English borrowings -
but of course that's language engineers for you, "It's my own special
dialect and all its idiosyncracies must be preserved with uttermost
care" versus "It's not my mother tongue so I'm going to take a hammer to
it!".

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

----------

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

Interesting, Sandy!  Thanks for sharing your insight.

In fact, I omitted most of the repetitions, though now I see they were 
important in that they support your argument, because they were consistent, 
as far as I could tell.

I did not think but should have thought about it in terms of strata, with 
"mainstream" English loans on later strata.  Given your credible input, this 
makes this dialect all the more interesting and perhaps something to 
remember when we look at supposed inconsistencies in other language 
varieties, not only English ones.

Good to have you back, Sandy.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron 

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