LL-L: "Phonology" (was "Limburgish") LOWLANDS-L, 17.JAN.2000 (04) [E]

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From: Mari Sarv [Mari at haldjas.folklore.ee]
Subject: LL-L: "Limburgish" LOWLANDS-L, 17.JAN.2000 (02) [D/E]

>From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
>Subject: Limburgish
>
>Dear Roger, Lowlanders,
>
>This Limburgish _sleeptoon_ ("dragging tone", "drawl") is very interesting
>indeed, and it is a feature Limburgish shares with many Low Saxon
>(Low German)
>dialect, namely most of those that have dropped (or are dropping)
>final _-e_.
>As far as I can tell, however, In Low Saxon there isn't much of a
>"tone," though
>in German the term _Schleppton_ is used by some.  Another German term is
>_Überlänge_ ("over-length", "superlength"), which describes the
>phenomenon more
>aptly.  Wherever a final _-e_ is dropped (thus in many plural and feminine
>forms, but not limited to them), the preceding syllable receives
>extra length.
>However, nowadays this tends to be limited to cases where the consonant
>preceding the dropped _-e_ is a non-nasal and non-liquid voiced
>consonant, and
>this consonant evades the usual West Germanic devoicing rule; e.g.,
>
>Dag [daX] 'day'
>Daag' [dQ:.G] 'days' (< Dage)
>
>fraagt [frQ:Xt] 'asks'
>Fraag' [frQ:.G] 'question' (< Frage)
>
>But
>Boom [bo.Um] 'tree'
>Bööm [b{oe}.Im] ~ [b{oe}Ym] 'trees' (< Böme(n))
>
>(There is a general rule that slightly lengthens a vowel before a
>sonorant.)
>
>Thus, like Estonian, these Low Saxon dialects have three phonetic
>vowel lengths:
>short, long, superlong.  This is fairly rare among the world's languages.

In Estonian the difference between the sc. "long" and "super-" or "overlong"
vowel (and consonant) lengths lies not so much in the real length of the
vowel, but rather - as this differentiation is possible only in words with
at least two syllables - in the durational relations of two syllables (in
the case of "long vowel" they are more equal), and in the tone-curve of
those two syllables (in "long" words it is falling and in "overlong"
rising-falling. (In some cases the phonetic quality of vowels is different
too.)

Is it, then, in those Low Saxon dialects, really only or mainly the length
of vowels what makes the difference clear? Or is it may be not so important
differenciation to understand what has been said?

Mari Sarv

----------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Phonology

Tere, Mari!

Thanks for the interesting explanation of Estonian vowel length (above).  It is
interesting to know that in Estonian extra length is a matter of word-internal
syllabic relation and that, as in Limburgish, a contour tone (Dutch _sleeptoon_
"dragging tone") is associated with extra-length.

You asked:

> Is it, then, in those Low Saxon dialects, really only or mainly the length
> of vowels what makes the difference clear? Or is it may be not so important
> differenciation to understand what has been said?

As far as I know, it is a matter of relative length only, where in the case of
superlength an extra "beat" has been transferred from the elided _-e_ to the
preceding syllable; e.g., _Dage_ ['dQ:Ge] > _Daag'_ [dQ:.G]. i.e., CVVCV >
CVVVC, if you will.  I am not aware of any tonal expression, and I would be
surprised to find that there is any in any dialect.  The reason is that _-e_
always carries a neutral tone (i.e., usually the lightest stress in the word)
and usually the preceding syllable carries the main stress and thus has a
falling tone; i.e., falling+neutral where the neutral tone must be low in
extension of the falling tone.  Theoretically then, a contour tone could not
arise from this other than an extra-long falling tone.

I think there are very few instances in which non-distinction of long and
superlong would create misunderstanding, which might also be the reason why
native speakers tend to let non-distinction pass.  In fact, I'm hard put to come
up with minimal pairs, or triplets for that matter.  When I do, they tend to be
"silly" and in no danger of being confused; e.g., _Stadt_ [stat] 'town', 'city'
- _Staat_ [stQ:t] 'state', 'splendor'  - _Staad'_ [stQ:.(d)]* 'Stade' (a town on
the Lower Elbe), _Huus_ [hu:s] 'house' - _na Huus'_ [nQ: hu:.z] 'home(ward)',
_Kliff_ [klIf] 'cliff' - _kliev!_ [kli:f] 'stick!' - _Kliev'_ [kli:.v] 'sticky
ball', 'bur'.

(* Some dialects delete /d/ here while other do not.  Remnant of this can be
found in Dutch, e.g., _luide_ > _lui_ 'people', like Low Saxon _Lüde_ > _Lüüd'_
[ly:.d] ~ [ly:.] 'people'.)

Best regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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