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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 17 February 2009 - Volume 01<br>
===========================================</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <<a href="mailto:roerd096@PLANET.NL">roerd096@PLANET.NL</a>><br>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2009.02.12 (02) [E]<br>
<br>
Well, maybe it's just a "natural" tendency to aspirate only in
stressed<br>
syllables, and that Low Saxon and American English coincidently both<br>
followed the same path?<br>
<br>
And don't forget Danish, with "Peder", "peber",
"pige",as opposed to the<br>
very closely related Norwegian Bokmaal...<br>
That voicing of intervocal consonants is such a universal tendency as<br>
well, I mean: we find that in very many todally unreladed languages.<br>
<br>
In English, it may originate from Celtic influence, since varieties spoken<br>
in areas closest to Celtic have it the most, am I right?<br>
Maybe that's where US English has it from.<br>
Or maybe American pronunciation just reflects popular British prono of a<br>
few centuries ago?<br>
<br>
There were many German immigrants in the States, a lot of them from Low<br>
Saxon speaking areas, maybe they helped establish this prono...<br>
<br>
Just my zwopfennig<br>
<br>
Ingmar<br>
<br></span></p><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">></span></span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Subject: Phonology</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Hi, everyone!</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
I would like to revisit and possibly get your thoughts about consonant</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
aspiration.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
It seems to me that among the modern Germanic language groups there are</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
indications of genealogical traits mixed with areal features due to</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
language</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
contacts.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
If you look at Low Frankish (including Dutch) and Low Saxon, two closely</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
related groups, you find that presence and absence of aspiration is a major</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
distinguishing feature. There is no aspiration in Low Frankish (and indeed</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
in *all* Frankish groups), while with the exception of far-western dialects</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
(with Low Frankish contacts) Low Saxon has aspiration in syllables with</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
primary stress, virtually identical to the pattern in mainstream American</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
English (as opposed to other English varieties in which stress makes little</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
difference).</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
As I said, Frankish can be generalized as having no aspiration. Going</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
farther south we find Alemannic, most of whose varieties have strong</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
aspiration. Going east from there we find (Austro-)Bavarian and Thuringian</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
with no aspiration (?), where at the old and middle stages supposed</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
"lenition" led to ambiguous spelling (e.g. *buter ~ puter* 'butter').
Going</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
farther east we are well and truly in the "new" territory that used
to be</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
mostly Slavic speaking and became home for immigrants from all over the</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
west, with considerable influx of Franks from as far away as today's</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Netherlands and Belgium.
Assumedly, the "Central German" varieties, which</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
include the "Upper Saxon" and Silesian ones, are products of language</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
mixing. However, they are predominantly without aspiration, which may be</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
due</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
to a continuum with neighboring Thuringian, to Frankish influx or to both</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
of</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
the above. However, going north from there and entering the eastern</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
extension of Low Saxon we find that aspiration predominates, be it because</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
of the persistence of this feature (despite Low Frankish influx), because</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
of</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
aspiration in the Slavic substratum languages or because of both of them.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Frisian seems to be a mixed bag: aspiration in Germany under previous Saxon</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
domination and no aspiration under Dutch domination.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Scandinavian varieties are predominantly aspirating ones. In Danish,</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
aspiration is so strong that it has led to the creation of affricates (/t/</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
-> [ts]). In Islandic, aspiration is so strong that consonants come to be</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
pre-aspirated in certain environments (a feature Icelandic shares with the</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Turkic Yughur language of Gansu, China, for
instance).</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
And so we arrive at English, the "new" kid on the block, the love
child of</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Old Saxon, Old Frisian and other players on previously Celtic-speaking</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
soil.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Here we find a preponderance of aspiration with the exception of a few</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
(northern?) dialects. A Saxon feature that spread, perhaps facilitated by</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Celtic aspiration? As mentioned earlier, mainstream American English by and</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
large follows the same aspiration pattern as does mainstream Low Saxon</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
(i.e.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
aspiration of voiceless stops in syllables with primary stress only; e.g.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
Peter [ˈpʰitɻ̩] ~
[ˈpʰiɾɻ&# </span></div>
<p style="margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">809;],*
Low Saxon [ˈpʰe(¢°)tɝ] ~ [ˈpʰe(¢°)ɾɝ],*
versus<br>
British English [ˈpʰi¢°tʰɚ] ~
[ˈpʰi¢°ʦ ʰɚ] and German
[ˈpʰe¢°tʰɐ]). (*This<br>
permitted the development of the medial t-flap in American and Low Saxon.)<br>
<br>
Are there any relevant thoughts and theories out there?<br>
<br>
Thanks and regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron<br>
Seattle, USA</span></p>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
</span><br style=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">
</span></p>