LL-L "Phonology" 2002.06.13 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 13.JUN.2002 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Ruud Harmsen <rh at rudhar.com>
Subject: LL-L "Resources" 2002.06.12 (05) [E]

14:58 12-6-2002 -0700, Lowlands-L:
Gary Taylor, about Estuary English:

>* l-vocalisation. This refers to the changing of l before a consonant,
>or l in phrase final position to a sound similar to 'w' or 'u'.  For
>example " milk " > " mi-wk " " hell " > " he-w " but " hell and back "
>hell am back " (l pronounced due to the following a).

I sometimes wonder if there could be some historic link in the
development of such accents across he North Sea, because the l in
Dutch is so similar: in the "standard" accent in is slightly dark in
exactly the same positions as in English RP, but the stronger
darkening a.k.a. vocalisation as described above also occurs in
accents in the West of the Netherlands, especially the Hague, but
also Rotterdam, Amsterdam etc.
So the verbs "vernieuwen" and "vernielen" (renew; demolish, destroy)
sound very different, but the past participles "verniewd" and
"vernield" have almost identical pronunciation.

There are also strong similarities (and small differences) between
oo-sounds (as in English boat, Dutch boot) in RP and Estuary, and in
Rotterdam and the Hague city accents. A similar sound occurs in
Breda (Brabant). Also in Groningen accents of Dutch (influenced by
Low-Saxon?), Low-Saxon as heard on Radio Bremen, and in Lëtzeburgesch.
I don't say they're all the same, but they are a bit similar.

Of course acoustic similarity doesn't necessary betray geographical
proximity or historical links: the vocalised l is also found in
Brasil, which almost sounds as Brasíu there.
--
Ruud Harmsen <rh at rudhar.com>
Last update 12 June 2002 http://rudhar.com/index/whatsnew.htm

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

Ruud:

> Of course acoustic similarity doesn't necessary betray geographical
> proximity or historical links: the vocalised l is also found in
> Brasil, which almost sounds as Brasíu there.

I would say it does sound just like [br@'ziu] in many cases, in other
cases perhaps like [br@'ziw].  I believe this occurs also in some
dialects of Portugal.  In Portuguese, syllable-final /l/ is always velar
("thick," as in English "ball"), thus _Brasil_ [br@'ziL\].  A shift from
velar [L\] to [w] (and [u]) is very common among the world's languages,
and it does tend to occur in clusters, thus as an areal feature.  The
velar /l/ (written as a slashed <l>) in most Polish, Kashubian, Lower
Sorbian and Upper Sorbian dialects is also pronounced [w] (like English
"w" in "won" or "how").  In Standard Lower and Upper Sorbian this
totally coincides phonetically with what is written <w> (as though they
were the same phoneme, unlike Polish and Kashubian where <w> is
pronounced [v]), but the two are still distinguished orthographically.

Low Saxon (Low German) also has a velar allophone of /l/, always
syllable-finally, as in Portuguese, but in most dialects only after back
vowels (/ul/, /uul/ /ol/, /ool/, /oul/, /aal/), and in some dialects it
may be realized as [w] after back rounded vowels (/ul/, /uul/ /ol/,
/ool/, /oul/).  However, assumedly under German influence, this
distinction between apical ("tongue tip") [l] and velar [L\] appears to
be falling by the wayside in the Low Saxon dialects of Germany, and the
velar allophone seems to be vanishing.  So, for instance _Uul_ 'owl'
used to be (and by some speakers still is) pronounced [?u:L\] or even
[?u:w], but you will now hear mostly [?u:l].

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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