LL-L 'Sports' 2006.06.26 (06] [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 26 June 2006 * Volume 06
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From: Henno Brandsma <hennobrandsma at hetnet.nl>
Subject: LL-L 'Phonology' 2006.06.25 (02] [E]

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Phonology
>
> Folks,
>
> The English word "one" [wAn] keeps on mystifying me.
>
> First of all, it had a rounded vowel throughout its history. I can
> dig that,
> since dialectal rounding of long /a/ was not unknown in Old
> English: thus _ān_ ~
> _ōn_ 'one', which I assume were pronounced *[Q:n] ~ *[O:n] ([Q:] =
> "posh" British
> as in "father" or Swedish as in _bra_, [O:] as in drawn out
> "God!"). However,
> there were dialects that used short [a] in this word, given
> occasional occurrence
> of _ann_, rarely even _æn_.
>
> In the north of Britain, *_ayn_ held its ground, hence Scots _ayn_
> for 'one'
> [e:n], consistent with _stayn_ [ste:n] 'stone', _alane_ [@"le:n]
> 'alone', _bayn_
> [be:n] 'bone', etc. (cf. Low Saxon [E.In], [stE.In], [?a"lE.In],
> [bE.In]
> respectively).
>
> Somehow the rounded version too over in Southern England and
> consequently in what
> might be called "Standard English." I can dig that too.
>
> What mystifies me mostly is what appears to be Frisian-like
> "breaking" in "one",
> something I assume developed from a falling diphthong: *oon > *uon
> > *won > wAn.
> (_Oon_ is one of the attested Middle English spellings, by the
> way.) However,
> it does not seen to be a Frisicism, given non-rounded Modern
> Westerlauwer Frisian
> _ien_ (< *_een_, "broken" to [ien]).

And further broken to "jin" and "ien" [jIn] as well. Here "jin" is
the objective
form of "one" as an indefinite pronoun (belonging to "men" [m at n] as
the subjective form):
"men moat jin altyd waskje" (one always has to wash oneself), and as
an cardinal it is broken in
compounds: "ienentweintich" ([jIn at ntwaint@x].

> Breaking in early dialectal versions of "one" are indeed fairly
> common, such as
> chiefly Northern _yane_, _yean_ and _yan_, also Northern Irish
> English _yane_ and
> _yin_. The Irish English case is not too surprising, given that
> Irish English
> (ans also West Indies English) consistently uses falling diphthongs
> where other
> dialects have rising diphthongs (e.g., _bone_ England [boUn] versus
> Ireland and
> West Indies [buOn] ~ broken [bwOn]).
>
> The most puzzling part to me is that what in "general" English
> seems to be a case
> of vowel breaking in "one" seems to be unique rather than a part of
> a generally
> applying rule. I can't come up with other such cases.

yin is almost Frisian... (here there was no rounding, so the
preconditions were similar to Frisian
that had "e:n" in Old Frisian (still in Hindeloopen/Hylpen), and in
Saterlandic eg.)

The breaking of o-sounds to [wa] is common in Frisian as well (hoanne
(from ho:ne) = [(h)wan@]) "cock", Dutch haan;
hoarnen ([wan at n]) "horns", moarns [mwa:~s] (in the morning) etc etc).

> As I said, it makes sense in Irish and West Indies English as a
> part of a general
> pattern. Other such example are Sorbian (Lusatian) and Polabian in
> which initial
> [O] () became [wO].
>
> English: he | window | person | eight | around
> Polabian: wôn | wôknü ~ waknü | ? | visěm | ?
> Sorbian: won | wokno | wosoba | wosom | wokolo
> Kashubian: òn | òkno | ? | woesmë | ?
> Polish: on | okno | osoba | osiem | wokolo
> Czech: on | okno | osoba | osm | okolo
> Slovak: on | okno | osoba | osem | okolo
> Ukrainian: vin | okno | osoba | visim | -
> Belarusan: jon | vakno | asoba | vosem | -
> Russian: on | okno | osoba | vosem' | -
> Slovene: on | okno | oseba | osem | okoli
> Croatian: on | okno | osoba | osam | okolo
> Serbian: on | okno | osoba | osam | okolo
> Bulgarian: - | - | - | osem | okolo
>
> Any thoughts, idea?

In Frisian breaking mostly occurred when a word was lenghtened
(plurals, diminuatives, adverbs, compunds)
and the root word was stressed less than when in isolated form. And
"one" occurs often in unstressed form,
eg in twenty-one (just to be one-and-twenty). This might have been a
factor...

Mei freonlike groetnis,

Henno

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