LL-L 'Language contacts' 2006.06.09 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 09 June 2006 * Volume 06
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From: 'Isaac M. Davis' <isaacmacdonalddavis at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L 'Language contacts' 2006.05.29 (07) [E]

Ron wrote:

> Isaac,
>
> There are some pertinent linguistic articles; e.g.
>
> http://www.sussex.ac.uk/linguistics/documents/q1047_lecture_06.pdf
> http://nels.uconn.edu/abstracts/AllisonN.Adler.pdf
> http://www.sussex.ac.uk/linguistics/documents/q1047_lecture_05.pdf
> http://ling.ucsd.edu/courses/lign111/111.handout3.pdf

Quite interesting.

> The study of phoneme inventory change by way of lexical loaning is pretty
> interesting.  In most cases of sustained contacts, there are layers or
> strata of loans, and oftentimes these are different levels of adaptation and
> show phonological changes.

It's a subject that fascinates me as well. I'm specifically interested in it as
it applies to Irish and Albanian, but it's an interesting subject in all
languages (Hawai'ian is a new interest), including Lowlands ones.

Another somewhat related process that interests me (and still works under
"Language Contacts") is the borrowing of the same term by cognate languages (such
as Scots and English). It's interesting when, based on the period of time when it
was borrowed, or the phonological rules of the language doing the borrowing, two
related languages can start with the same word and end up with something that
looks strikingly different: cf. English 'dictionary', Scots 'dictionar'.

> You are right: "Christ" is _Karisto_ or _Kristo_ in Hawaiian, the former
> probably being the older one (CV...).  Consider the fact that Hawaiian does
> not permit consonant clusters (has regular CV structure) and Modern Hawaiian
> does not have /s/ and /t/.  (These have in most cases become /k/.)  To go a
> step farther -- though I don't know how old it is -- Hawaiian also has the
> loan _Jesus Christ_ besides the older form _Iesu K(a)risto_.  My theory is
> that the "proper" pronunciation of such religious loans is due to the
> insistence of missionaries, or there is some sort of finickiness with regard
> to reverential names.

That makes sense.

> And this is where the plot thickens: the word for 'grandparent', for
> instance, is _kūkū_ (or _kūkū kāne_ 'grandfather', _kūkū wahine_
> 'grandmother', with the modifiers 'male' and 'female' respectively).

That's fascinating on its own (auxiliary language-makers take note: here's a
natural language that approaches things in an equal way).

> However, this _kūkū_, although it tends to be written as such, is usally
> pronounced _tūtū_!!!  We know that _kūkū_ is derived from *_tūtū_ because
> the shift /t/ > /k/ is a regular one.

Except on Kaua'i, of course.

> My theory is that in Hawaiian certain
> words, or names, were/are exempt from certain phonological changes, must be
> pronounced "properly," as in the olden days, and that this has been extended
> to names in Christianity, the new religion.  I further believe that the case
> of _tūtū_ has something to do with ancestor "worship."  Note that for
> instance _makua_ 'parent' is not exempt (i.e., is not preserved as earlier
> *_matua_; cf., Maori _matua_, Malay _tuan_ 'lord', 'sire').  Contradicting
> my theory are the word _kupuna_ 'ancestor' (< *_tupuna_, cf. Maori _tipuna_
> ~ _tupuna_) and _akua_ 'god' (< *_hatua_, cf. Maori _atua_).
>
> At any rate, isn't it interesting that a supposedly non-existing or extinct
> phoneme (/t/) makes an appearance in a few words, among them at least one
> native word?

Quite interesting.

Isaac M. Davis.

-- 

Westron wynd, when wilt thou blow
The smalle rain down can rain
Christ yf my love were in my arms
And I yn my bed again 

----------

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

Hi, Isaac!

Good to hear from you again!  Well, let's have a little chat while them Yurpeens
do their soccer thing!

> but it's an interesting subject in all languages (Hawai'ian is a new interest),

Does that predate this discussion and the influences of the Kahuna?

Hawai'ian (i.e., mainstream Hawai'ian) is indeed a very interesting case, and not
only because of its extreme vowel phoneme inventory shrinkage _vis-Ã -vis_
loaning, but also because of the mentioned rule exemptions and the case of
preserved [t] in apparently special cases.  Processing of English loans make this
a relevant topic.  But even apart from that it is worth looking across a few
fences to widen our Lowlands horizons.

So what we have here is special pronunciation, including the use of an otherwise
absent sound, for words or topics of special significance.  Is there anything
like that in the Lowlands arena, or in the Germanic arena as a whole?  Well, the
only example -- apparently an idiosyncratic aberration -- I can come up with is
my maternal grandmother who, whenever and only when speaking about money in her
Lower Silesian German, would lisp her /z/ and /s/ (i.e., pronounce them
interdentally).  I've never heard anyone else do that.  I remember how fascinated
I was by that as a youngster, carefully observing it but never speaking about it.

> > And this is where the plot thickens: the word for 'grandparent', for
> > instance, is _kūkū_ (or _kūkū kāne_ 'grandfather', _kūkū wahine_
> > 'grandmother', with the modifiers 'male' and 'female' respectively).
> 
> That's fascinating on its own (auxiliary language-makers take note: 
> here's a natural language that approaches things in an equal way).

Indeed.  It operates pretty regularly; e.g.,

keiki : child, offspring
keiki kāne : boy, son
keiki wahine : girl, daughter

makua : parent, relative of a parent's generation
makua kāne : father, uncle
(makua (wa)hine >) makuahine : mother, aunt

`Ä«lio : dog, canine
`īlio kāne : male dog
`Ä«lio wahine : bitch

And it operates with loans as well; e.g.,

(driver > talaiva >) kalaiwa : driver
kalaiwa kāne : male driver
kalaiwa wahine : female driver

(beef >) pipi : beef, cattle, bovine*
pipi kāne : bull
pipi wahine : cow

(poor pussy >) pōpoki : cat, feline**
pōpoki kāne : tomcat
pōpoki wahine : female cat, (feline) queen

(sheep >) hipa : sheep***
hipa kāne : ram
hipa wahine : ewe

* cf. Maori:
(cow >) kau : cattle, bovine
(bull >) pūru : bull
(cow >) kau : cow

** cf. Maori:
(pussy >) poti : cat
(tomcat >) tame poti : tomcat
poti uhwa : female cat, (feline) queen 
   [uwha : animal female]

*** cf. Maori:
(sheep >) hipi : sheep
(ram >) rāme : ram
(ewe >) io : ewe

So you see that Hawai'ian tends to keep the number of loans lower by being
"natively inventive" with them.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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