LL-L: "Orthography" LOWLANDS-L, 05.DEC.2000 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 05.DEC.2000 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
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 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic, Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Henry Pijffers [hpijffers at home.nl]
Subject: Spelling

Hoi all,

Some things have been bugging me lately.

First of all, In my Low-Saxon writing, I try to apply the rule
which says that in a closed syllable you write long vowels
with double letters, as in:

br_ee_d (wide)
d_ee_r (animal)
p_aal_l (pole)
br_oo_d (bread)

But, there is also the letter "u". Now should I write
"h_u_s" or "h_uu_s"? Both sound and look the
same to me.

Second, how about words that end in a vowel, like:

hog_e_ (high)
drög_e_ (dry)

Do you treat these final syllables as open or closed?
If you treat them as open, I expect the final e to be a
long e, but it's not, it's a schwa. So this is confusing
if a word has a final e which is supposed to be a long
e. But then again, if you treat these as closed, how
'bout words like "va" (short for "vader" (father))? They
end in in a long vowel... Confusing...

And last, something about the animal called bear.
In (my) Low-Saxon, this is pronounced exactly like in
English, except for the r at the end. I was thinking
about how to write it. The Dutch write it as "beer" and
the Germans write it as "bär", but I think neither would
do well in Low-Saxon. So I was thinking, would it be
logical to write it as in English, as "bear"? Makes sense
to me at least...

regards,
Henry Pijffers

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