LL-L "Orthography" 2008.02.05 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  05 February 2008 - Volume 06
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography"

Beste Ivison,

First of all: what a beautiful name you have!

You wrote:

Dear sirs,
How was the Modern Dutch oe /u/ ponounced in Middle Age times?


Please read the documents that I scanned from "Middelnederlandse
Spraakkunst" II. Klankleer by Dr. A. Van Loey. Sorry, but it's in Dutch:

p. 70: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df2hffj_10gswj7hc4
p. 71: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df2hffj_12gmd5xpzr
p. 72: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df2hffj_14f4hq8rdv
p. 73: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df2hffj_16cwsjnbww

I've just read that is spelled in this way because it was once a diphthong
as in Old German UO.


Definitely spelled as -uo- until the 11th century (in Brabant until the
12th), the article says. Pronunciation differed between the regions, the
(North)west (Flanders + Holland) probably used a long, very closed
monopthong ō, the (South)east said /u:/.

What about the dialects of Dutch? Is the word "boek" written and read as
in Dutch?


To my knowledge it's written as "boek" in every Dutch dialect (maybe not in
Limburgish, not sure about that). In general, nowadays, -oe- is still
pronounced very much with closed lips and rounded in the (North)west, but
much more open in the South(east), where umlaut has also worked for example
(see p. 73):

groen (D) > grüün (B)
broer (D) > brüür (B)
moe (D) > müüg (B)
...

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

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From: Henno Brandsma <hennobrandsma at hetnet.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2008.02.05 (02) [E]

From: Ivison dos Passos Martins <ipm7d at OI.COM.BR>
Subject: The oe digraph in Dutch

Dear sirs,
How was the Modern Dutch oe /u/ ponounced in Middle Age times?
I've just read that is spelled in this way because it was once a diphthong
as in Old German UO.
What about the dialects of Dutch? Is the word "boek" written and read as
in Dutch?
Thank you so much.

It probably was pronounced like [u.@] in mnay dialects, so longer [u] sound
with weak sjwa.
This sound e.g. occurs still in West(erlauwer) Frisian (although this is a
different language)
(although not in this word, where we have [buk] like Dutch, and [bu:k]
meaning beech).
There are still dialects having similar sounds, but also "book" [o:] occurs
and also "bouk".
The diphthong tends to remain (longer) before dentals d,t,l,n and of course
(compulsory) for r.
So words like "bloed" have this sound more often (cf. W Frisian [blu. at t])But
the western dialects have [u] most of the time. "bouk" or "book" is rare.
These ARE found in Limburgian and in Low Saxon varieties, as common forms,
though.

Henno

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

For what it's worth, here are some comparisons:

Old German > Middle German > Modern Standard German [u(:)]
blôt ~ bluot > bluot > Blut
guot ~ kuot ~ guat ~ kuat > guot > gut
buoh > buoch > Buch
tô- ~ tôa- ~ tuo- ~ tuoa- ~ tue- ~ > tuo- > tu-
chuo > kuo > Kuh

Old Low Franconian > Middle Dutch > Modern Standard Dutch [u(:)]
bluod > bloet ~ bloed > bloed
guod > goet ~ goed- > goed
buok > boek > boek
duo- > doe- > doe-
kuo > koe > koe

Old Saxon > Middle Saxon > Low Saxon [oʊ] ~ [aʊ]
blôd > blôd > *Bloot ~ Blaut* = bloud
gôd > gôd > *goot ~ gaut* = goud
bôk > bôk > *Book ~ Bauk* = bouk
dô- ~ *duo*- ~ *dôa*- ~ *dua*- ~ > dô- > *doo- ~ dau-* = dou-
cô > kô > *Koh ~ Kauh* = kou

Old Frisian > Modern W. Frisian [uə] ~ [u(:)], [wa(:)], ([y(:)])
blôd > bloed
gôd > goed
bôk > boek
dua- > dwa-
kú > ko

Old English > Middle English > Modern English [u(:)] ~ [ʊ] ~ [ʌ], ([aʊ])
blód > blode ~ blude > blood
gód > gode ~ good > good
bóc > bok ~ boke ~ book > good
dó- > doo- ~ do- > do
cú > cowe ~ cou > cow

Common Germanic:
*blōþ-
*gōd-
*bōk-
*dō-?
*kōw

I find Henno's hypothesis of [uo] in Middle Dutch very plausible considering
that the shift was from Old Dutch [uo] to Modern Dutch [u:].

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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