LL-L "Grammar" 2010.01.12 (03) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 12 January 2010 - Volume 03
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From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar"

Beste Diederik,

You wrote:

True dat, the OFFICIAL name is India in Dutch as well - however in spoken
language everyone calls it Indië, at least in Belgium. I'm not 100% sure
how widespread the use of Indië is but outside formal context like the news
or geography classes in high school I don't know anyone who actually
pronounces the name with -ia (except a few purists trying to speak "on the
letter"), all will say -ië.


Ouch! Quite the contrary, have always heard natives say "India" in my
(Brabantish) environment. They were all diehard dialect speakers, definitely
the opposite of "purists". Country names ending on "-ië" on the other hand,
were perceived as scholastic inventions.

Maybe this has something to do with stress. In Western Brabantish, "Maria"
has stress on the final syllable (like French), with two clear "a"-s in the
word. Same for "Johan". Also gets stress in the back, with both "o" and "a"
still clearly pronounced.
In the North (where difference between stressed and unstressed is bigger),
stressing one syllable tends to weaken the quality of the other vowels much
more than in the South (of Belgium). Listen how "Marie/Mary" sounds in
English. It's either "Murree" or "Mèrry". Unstressed vowels become (halfway)
mute. Check how "Johan" sounds in "De Kempen". It's become "Jehà n",
stressing the final syllable has muffled the "o". In English, the other way
round, "John".

Maybe this is why "India" (with stress on the first syllable) did not
spontaneously give way to "Indië" down south.

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx, Halle, Belgium

•

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