LL-L "Orthography" 2002.07.09 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 09.JUL.2002 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian 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: "Roman Laryushkin" <puka_2000 at mail.ru>
Subject:

Dear Lowlanders!
I have a question concerning diacretic marks.
In german language, for instance, the letters O-umlaut and U-umlaut
express the
forms of the sounds O and U correspondingly, let's mark them ['o] and
['u],
while the letter A-umlaut expresses the sound which is not a form of the
sound
[a]. When I knew Greman not I thoug it expressed a sound ['a], like it
does in
Finnish or Estonian. Who can clarify for me why is the form letter "a"
is used
for the sound which is closer to "e"?

---------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com
Subject: Orthography

Roman,

There are basically two reasons for the a-umlaut (ä), one phonological
and one phonetic.  Some might say it is historical, other might
disagree.

The _umlaut_ (which means something like "sound mutation") as a symbol
signals fronting of originally back vowels in derivations (where there
is or used to be a non-low front vowel in the following syllable).
Thus, in German you get ...

Sohn (son) > Söhne (sons)
Rock (skirt, jacket) > Röcke (skirts, jackets)
Huhn (hen, chicken) > Hühner (hens, chickens)
Mund (mouth) > Münder (mouths)

This happens in the case of original /a/ as well; e.g. ...

Hahn (rooster) > Hähne (roosters)
backen (to bake) > Bäcker (baker)
Haus (house) > Häuser (really *Häüser, houses)

It is true that most German speakers nowadays pronounce the _ä_ as
though it were written _e_.  This is a *Standard* German and North
German thing.  However, this is a fairly recent development.
Originally, it was pronounced more open, something like [æ] or [E], and
it is still pronounced like that in many, mostly southern German
dialects, especially in the Alemannic ones.

(Isn't something similar happening to French _è_ that used to be
pronounced [E] but is nowadays mostly pronounced [e], to coincide with
_é_?)

To return to the Lowlands, umlauting applied or still applies in a few
Lowlandic varieties, not as extensively as in German and Yiddish (and in
Yiddish _ö_ > _e_ and _ü_ > _i_).  There was a fair bit of umlauting in
Old English and Old Low Franconian (Old Dutch), but there are only some
petrified remnants of that now.  Lowlands Saxon (Low German) still has a
fair bit of it (though much less than has German0, in many dialects
although the original umlauting-causing vowel seems to be deleted (but
its ghost is lingering and causing mischief); e.g.,

Soot [zoUt] (well) > Sööt [z9It] (wells)
Bruud [bru:t] (bride) > Brüüd' [bry:.d] {< Brüde) (brides)
backen ['bakN=] (to bake) > Backer ['bak3`] ~ Bäcker ['bEk3`] (baker)

As you may know, Lowlands Saxon does not have a standardized orthography
(and may never have one if current silliness prevails).  So, people can
do pretty much whatever they fancy.  Some writers utilize the _ä_ ~ _ää_
to distinguish the monophthong long /ee/ ([e:] ~ [E:]) from _e_ ~ _ee_,
which, stupidly, symbolizes a diphthong: /ei/ ([e.I] ~ [E.I]) (because
German does not have this diphthong).  So ...

(1) beden /beid-n/ ['bE.Idn=] (to offer; cf. German _bieten_)

(2) beden ~ bäden /beed-n/ ['be:dn=] ~ ['bE:dn=] (to pray, to
    request; cf. German _beten_, _bitten_)

In the fareastern and thus Slavic- and Baltic-influenced dialects of
Lowlands Saxon, including Mennonite L.S. ["Plautdietsch"] (like, for the
same reason, in Yiddish and in fareastern German dialects), all front
rounded vowels have become unrounded, thus e.g. _Söhn_ > _Sehn_ (son)
and _düütsch_ > _dietsch_ (German).  This affects "active" umlauting as
well; e.g., _Huhn_ (hen) > _Hiehner_ (hens).

Did this answer your question?  Perhaps even more than you had wanted?
;)

(This could be another version of what Sandy and I called _michtie
flude_  and _muckle spate_ ("mighty flood") in Scots.)

Friendly regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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