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<p class="MsoNormal"><font> </font></p><font>From: </font>Ingmar Roerdinkholder <<a href="mailto:roerd096@PLANET.NL">roerd096@PLANET.NL</a>><font><br>
Subject: <span></span></font>LL-L "Etymology" 2012.04.27 (01) [EN]<br><span>
<br>
</span>In the Netherlands, -e for Standard Dutch -en is very widespread, not only in most the Low Frankish areas,<br>
but also in the Frisian speaking areas. In Belgium, the same in Brabantish and Limburgish areas.<br>
Colloquial spoken Standard Dutch usually pronounces -en as -e, in the Netherlands (not in Belgium).<br>
<br>
But not so in Zeeland (NL) and Flanders (B): there the nasal in -en is
clearly pronounced, as is the case in the Low Saxon speaking provinces.
Often even the e (schwa) of -en is silent here, so that only -n is
heard.<br>
<br>
Anyway, imho the silence of -n in -en could have something to do with several things (in Dutch):<br>
<br>
first: in many dialects, singular nouns that ended in final -e once (and still do in Standard German), dropped this -e<br>
so that -e could become the new suffix to mark plural. -e was already a common plural marker for nouns ending in<br>
a consonant.<br>
<br>
second: in many dialects, the conjungation of adjectives was simplified
when the number of genders was reduced to two (common vs neuter):
instead of "een groten man" next to "ene grote vrouwe", it became "een
grote man" and "een grote vrouw", so "groten" lost its final -n<br>
<br>
third: in Frisian, the language once spoken in most of the Northern
Netherlands, including the area which is now the Randstand, verbs end in
-e in the plural persons present. This -e is from an older
einheitsplural -eth, not from -en,<br>
but in Standard Dutch it's spelt -en but pronounced -e in most areas.<br>
<br>
fourth: many Dutch and Frisian dialects have nasal pronunciations of
vowels (as in French) before -n, and the step from a nasally pronounced
-en to -e is a very small one.<br>
I grew up in a Low Saxon speaking area, and I remember that for us, the
step to pronounce (written) Dutch -en as the colloquial -e (as we heard
on radia and TV) was psycologically too big, instead some, especially
girls, made a nasal schwa of it instead.<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left:40px;color:rgb(0,0,153)">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>
Subject: Etymology<br><br>
Thanks, Mike.<br><br>
But ... supposed -en > -e is not limited to the infinitive suffixes,
if you consider constructions such as wir machen ~ mir mache, and
Fraue(n).<br><br>
I wonder if > -e is a largely Frankish feature, since it is present
in practically all Frankish dialects, from Low to High. Because of
historical Frankish power it could have spread from there. It is
definitely very un-Saxon. The only Low Saxon dialects that have this
feature are some in the far east where they rubbed shoulders with
transplanted Frankish ones among Medieval migrants.<br><br>
Note also that Eastern Yiddish is of the -en type. Generally speaking,
its Medieval roots are in an area around the Middle Rhine, which is
predominantly Ripuarian speaking, and today's Ripuarian dialects are of
the -e type.<br><br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron<br>
Seattle, USA<br></div>
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