LL-L "Phonology" 2008.04.28 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 28 April 2008 - Volume 02
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: Re: LL-L "Phonology" 2008.04.27 (02) [E]

Well, English is not the only one, at least before nasal clusters.
Modern Frisian has long vowels in words like wyn, hûn, keunst etc (< wind,
hund, kunst). Many Low Saxon dialects in the Netherlands have: wiend,
kiend, guunst (< wind, kind, gunst), also present in some varieties of
South Guelders, Limburgish, Flemish. Brabantish has kijnd, keind. Twente
Low Saxon has roond, geunst, keend etc. Standard Dutch has fewer examples,
but eind/einde (< end/ ende) is one of them.
In these dialects, it has nothing to do with schwa dropping, it's just a
phonological lengthening before nasal clusters.
Lengthening also occurs with rhotic clusters in many NL dialects:
haard, waarm etc (< hard, warm), but usually not with L...

Ingmar

----------

From: Daniel Prohaska <daniel at ryan-prohaska.com>
Subject: Re: LL-L "Phonology" 2008.04.27 (02) [E]

*From: Daniel Prohaska <daniel at ryan-prohaska.com>
Subject: Phonology*

*Reinhard,

Here's an alternative explanation:*

*Short vowels before liquids and nasals + homorganic voiced stop, and r +
voiced consonant, were lengthened in the course of the 9th century, e.g.:
eald > éald 'old' (Angl. ald > áld); lomb > lómb 'lamb', climban > clímban
'climb', bindan > bíndan 'bind', long > long 'long', funden > fúnden
'found'; eorðe > éorðe 'earth', eorl > éorl 'earl', leornian > léornian
'learn'.*

*Lengthening is restricted when a third consonant is part of the cluster and
when the word has three syllables. *

*In the 14th century vowels are shortened before clusters, usually
(dialectally varied) before mb and ng; before nd the long vowel is retained
in the South while the North (northern Midlands northward), shortens before
nd. Hence northern dialects have "blinnd" [blInd] for 'blind', also "winnd"
for 'wind'. I suspect the Anglian/East Saxon dialect mix of mediaeval London
dialect had both forms and the verb 'wind' and the noun 'wind' were
lexically dissimilated, the latter taking on the northern vowel to make a
clear distinction. Similar northern and mixed forms are also part of the
Standard English lexicon.*

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

Dear Lowlanders,

The vowel in a number of English words ending in "-ind" and "-ild" is
etymologically short but came to be lengthened at some point before long /i/
became the diphthong [aI]. (Remember that short /i/ did not undergo this
shift.) German, which also changed old long /i/ to [aI] (spelled ei
nowadays) did not lengthen short /i/ in the cognates of said words.

So this shift happened for example in the following words:

-ild:

child < childe < cild
mild < milde
  O. Frisian milde
  O. German milti > milde
wild < wilde
  O. Frisian wilde
  O. Saxon wildi > wild
  O. German wildi ~ wilti > wild

-ind, -int:

to bind < binde(n) < bindan
  O. Saxon bindan > binnen
  O. German bintan > bindento
to find < finde(n) < findan
  O. Saxon findan > finnen
  O. German fintan > finden
kind < gecynde (i < ü; but no diphthong in related kin < cyn)
  O. Saxon kind > Kind ~ Kinn (child)
  O. German kind > kint > Kind (child)
mind < gemynd (< *gemynde? - i < ü)
  O. German minna > minne
rind < rinde
  O. Saxon rinda > Rinn
  O. German rinta ~ rinda > Rinde
wind < winde(n) < windan
  O. Frisian winda
  O. Saxon windan > winnen
  O. German wintan > winden

Dutch and Afrikaans, actually all other Germanic languages except Scots,
also have a short vowel in their cognates of the above.

Note also Old Norman pinte (< V. Latin pincta) > English pint (with a
diphthong).

Contrary examples with a short vowel:

wind < wind
  O. Saxon wind > Wind ~ Winn
  O. German wind ~ wint > Wind
hint < hent

I have a theory here and wonder if others agree.

Early English inherited the Saxon trait of lengthening vowels before
sonorants (which Low Saxon has spread to all contexts). Early English
specialized it in occurrences in which a high vowel* follows /l/ or /n/
preceded by /d/ or /t/. Apparently, this required a following /-e/ (which in
the case of the noun "wind" was missing). If this /-e/ was crucial, we can
pinpoint the era as being after the shift of final /-a/ to /-e/, namely to
mid to late Middle English, which is also when this diphthongization process
(/ii/ > [aI], /uu/ > [aU]) seems to have occurred.

*Since I said "high vowel," we ought to expect that it happened to /u/ as
well. And indeed, we have examples such as hund > "hound" and pund >
"pound", where there is a short vowel in cognates in other languages,
including German (which changed long /u/ to [aU] as English did). The same
applies to Old Norman rounde > "round" (but German runt > rund).

I would be interested in your thoughts.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron"

----------

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

Thanks, guys.

Thanks for adding the Frisian thing to the mix, Ingmar. As for the Low Saxon
aspect, that's where I was coming from. This lengthening applies pretty much
throughout the language and in most cases of short vowels before all
sonorants. It's only in the Netherlands that these allophones have come to
be written. *Keend*, for example, is an attempt at writing short /i/ that is
lengthened ([ɪˑ] or [ɪː], [I:\] or [I:]).

And thanks for the compelling explanation, Dan. Since lengthening occurred
in Southern Britain only, I wonder if we are talking about the basic
lengthening trait of Saxon and Frisian. Franconian seems not to have
participated in this, with the exception of a few words (such as *aan* in
Dutch) which may belong to a Frisian substratum.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron*
*
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