LL-L "Phonology" 2008.06.08 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 08 June 2008 - Volume 01
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From: Travis Bemann <tabemann at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2008.06.07 (04) [E]

An important note is that stress is effectively frozen in the actual
realization of the sounds in words, which seems to often be
non-productive. One cannot simply "correct" the stress pattern of a
word after the fact as the orignally reduced phonemes' underlying
forms have effectively been lost. Take the word "garage" for instance
- the pronunciation [gəːˈʁaːʃ] or [gəːˈʁaːtʃ] here reflects and
underlying /gəˈraʒ/ not /geˈraʒ/; if it reflected the latter, then one
would in practice get alternation between reduced and unreduced
vowels, which does not show up here. Hence, the equivalent
diachronically expected forms with initial stress, [ˈgɛ̝ːʁɨːʃ] or
[ˈgɛ̝ːʁɨːtʃ], are effectively inaccessible except through borrowing
from other English dialects. Furthermore, the phonemic vowel qualities
effectively encode where stress "should" be placed, as true /ə/ not
before /r/ or /l/ is already reduced in the first place. (There are
phonological reasons why I consider such to be distinct from /ʌ/ in
stressed syllables here)

The closest one can do is base the patterns within new words
constructed from older words off synchronically existing alternations
associated with the morphemes used in the words in question. Take
"photograph" [ˈfo(ɾ̥)əːgʁɛ̯̆æ̆f] , "photography" [fəˈtʰaːgʁəfiː],
"photographic" [fo(ɾ̥)əːˈgʁɛ̯̆æ̆fɨʔk], "photographically"
[fo(ɾ̥)əːˈgʁɛ̯̆æ̆fɨʔkx̆ɰiː], and "photographer" [fəˈtʰaːgʁəfʁ̩ː] for
instance. I would myself not consider such to actually reflect any
sort of synchronically productive mobile stress but rather three
distinct allomorphs of its synchronic root "photograph", specifically
/ˈfotəgrɛ̯æf/, /fəˈtagrəf/, and /fotəˈgrɛ̯æf/, whose actual
distribution are determined as much by morphology and analogy as
phonology. And while the two allomorphs /ˈfotəgrɛ̯æf/ and
/fotəˈgrɛ̯æf/ are derivable from each other in the sense that primary
stress is only moved between syllables which would be stressed in
realization, they cannot derive nor be derived from the allomorph
/fəˈtagrəf/ as its stress falls on a syllable which is unstressed in
the other two allomorphs and whose original underlying form has
subsequently been lost in them. Once again, said underlying forms
having been permanently phonemically reduced is shown by the lack of
free variation between stressed and unstressed realizations in words
using particular allomorphs.

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

Thanks and bravo, Travis! This is certainly important to realize in cases of
languages such as English, Scots and other languages (such as Russian) that
have unpredictable stress assignment and significant vowel reduction in
"un"-stressed syllable.

This is not to say that certain phenomena of vowel reduction do not occur in
other languages as well, including those in the Lowlands.

Interestingly, Low Saxon tended to aim for easier management by reducing to
zero unstressed syllables in borrowed nouns with final stress; French *
courage* [kuˈʀaːʒ] > *kraasch' *[krɒːʒ] ~ *kraasch* [krɒːʃ] 'courage',
(Latin *advocatus*) > *Afkaat *[ʔafˈkʰɒːt] 'lawyer', 'barrister', Greek
αποθήκη *apothḗk**ē* > Latin *apotheca* > *Apteek* [ʔapˈtʰɛɪk] ~
*Afteek*[ʔafˈtʰɛɪk] (> Kashubian
*apteka*, Polish *apteka*, Russian аптека *apteka*, Latvian *aptieka*,
Estonian *apteek*, Finnish *apteeki*) 'pharmacy'.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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