LL-L "Phonology" 2003.08.07 (06) [E]

Thu Aug 7 17:47:17 UTC 2003

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Holger Weigelt <platt at holger-weigelt.de>
Subject: "Phonology"

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Phonology
>
>.....there appears to be some
> correspondence between Limburgish tones and Lowlands Saxon (Low German)
> vowel length.
>
> Lowlands Saxon -- at least many of its dialects among first language
> speakers -- adds extra-length to a long vowel where in the next syllable
> final _-e_  has been dropped and the intervening consonant is voiced.
Where
> this now final consonant is pronounced (which applies to all but /-d/), it
> remains voiced, i.e. does not undergo the usual rule of final devoicing
> (common to LS, German, Dutch, also Russian, Polish, etc.).  In this
> position, some dialects delete /-d/ while others retain it (and keep it
> voiced).  (It is usually non-native speakers that will apply final
devoicing
> in such cases, and the usually absent or insufficient orthographic
> representation of it reinforces this mispronunciation.)
>
> It so happens that this applies to the Lowlands Saxon equivalent of
Roger's
> example above:
>
> /peird/ -> (peyrd) <Peerd> ~ <Peert> [p_heI3`t] 'horse'
> (/peird+e/) > /peird=0/ -> (peyrd') <Peerd'> ~ <Peerd> ~ <Peer>
[pe:I3`(d)]
>
> Regards,
> Reinhard/Ron
>
Hello Roger, hello Ron !
This sounds very interesting for me because it touches a feature I'm
studying in our Eastern Friesland Low Saxon where it takes an outstanding
position.
We have groups of vowels (or diphthongs) consisting of two or three vowel
lengths each in which the different length-types can be phonemes but also
change into each other following very strong rules (never changing outside
these groupings).
To distinguish them orthographically I write the short vowel as a pure
letter, the long one with a macron and the overlengthened (in English I
often call it "stressed" what doesn't refer to the word stress) with an
accent circonflexe.
This last type is spoken as a long rising and short falling vowel (sometimes
there is a break between both parts) or as a long vowel on a high pitch
followed by a short one of lower pitch. For people who haven't any idea of
the pronounciation I like to compare it to the way You announce someone who
is distant to You. If for example his name is Tim, there will appear
something like Tii-im or Tii-him.
As I always told this type of sound can be a phoneme totally independent
from dropped syllables or end-es.
For example a "bâl" is a "ball" (G "Ball").
In compounds however long or overlengthened sounds are shortened: fautbal =
football
On the other hand Eastern Friesland Low Saxon often takes following
syllables or words back into their forerunners where they remain just as an
overlengthened sound:
For example: "het häi ?" (hEt hæI) = has he ? becomes "häed ?" (h´E:`Ed).
(_äe_ is the overlengthened vowel corresponding to E. Following the rule
that no letter may carry more than one diacritic in the cases of _ö_ and _ü_
the long vowels are shown by doubled letters and the "stressed" ones by
adding an _e_ to them. But there are also the sound groups _e_/_äe_,
_ö_/_öe_,_ü_/_üe_, _i_/_ie_ and _o_/_oe. For example _öö_ [ø:] and
_ööe_[´ø:`ø]  are a group distinct from _ö_[œ]/_öe_[´œ:`@])
Also many plural forms go this way:
"hūs" = house  hūsen / hûs (both are in use).
And more there is a striking coincidence between German two-syllable words
(with end-e) and the corresponding EFLS words of one syllable with an
overlengthened vowel:
Examples 1. words) LS "kât" G "Katze", LS "mât" G "Matte", LS "hêğ" G
"Hecke", LS "rîğ" G "Reihe"
2. grammatical forms) LS "dat hūs is rōd" / "dat rôd hūs" G "das Haus ist
rot" / "das rote Haus"
In total the whole thing is quite comprehensive but possibly my short
introduction gives You an impression of the fact and stuff for further
discussion.
Kind regards
Holger

----------

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

Moyen, Holger, Lowlanders!

Your data and observations are very interesting, Holger.  To gain clearer
insight into what is going on there one would need a much larger sample with
as many minimal pairs and triplets as possible.  I look forward to reading
your pice about it.

Clearly, Eastern Friesland Low Saxon and other dialects of the language are
quite different in many regards, especially lexically and phonologically.  I
noticed that EFLS often has long monophthongs where other dialects have
diphthongs.

> LS "hêğ" G "Hecke", LS "rîğ" G "Reihe"

In other North Saxon dialects the former has a short vowel: _hek_ (<Heck>)
[hEk] 'hedge', while the latter has a diphthong: _reyg'_ (<Rehg(')>) [rE:IG]
'row'.

Now, 'row' (_rîğ_ = _reyg'_) ought to be seen as lengthened by the deletion
of /-e/.  By itself, the word (_reyge_ >) _reyg'_ is pronounced with a long
diphthong (3 beats, _reyge_ /reige/ > _reyg'_ /reeig/), because the deleted
short /-e/ left behind one beat, and this beat goes to the remaining vowel,
in this case to the main vowel of the diphthong.  If there were a
monophthong long vowel (which comes with 2 beats), then this vowel would
also get an extra beat, e.g., _brüyde_ /brüüde/ > _brüyd'_ /brüüüd/
[bry:.(d)] 'brides' (singular _bruud_ [bru:t]).  If you spell the latter
<Brüüd> instead of <Brüüd'> -- which unfortunately now happens more often
than not -- then the learner would logically but wrongly pronounce it
[bry:t], thus with a long vowel and with final devoicing, as though it were
phonemically */brüüd/.

This extra-length in vowels and diphthongs is referred to as _Schleifton_ in
German terminology, thus cognate of Dutch _sleeptoon_, "dragging tone."  Why
"tone" in Northern Saxon?  I'm not sure.  But clearly there appears to be a
connection between it and tonality in Limburgish.

While it is clear the extra-length is the output of a phonological rule, I
am not sure if one ought to see it as a still productive rule or as a
historical rule.  I tend to lean toward the former.

However, it is very important to distinguish phonemic length from
phonological lengthening.  In LS, pretty much in all dialects, vowels are
lengthened before liquids (/r/, /l/, /n/, /m/, /N/).  English has this too,
before /l/, as in "ball" and "cold".)  This is a case of secondary length,
of lengthing, not phonemic length; e.g., /bal/ _bal_ [ba.l] 'ball', /hart/
_hart_ [ha:t] (= [ha..t]) 'heart', /arm/ [?a:m] (= [?a..m]) 'arm',  /man/
_man_ [ma.n] 'man', /dam/ _kam_ [k_ha.m] 'comb', /draN/ _drang_ [dra.N]
'tight', /kold/ _kold_ [k_ho.lt] 'cold'.  Compare this with non-lengthened
short vowels; e.g., /blad/ _blad_ [blat] 'blade', 'leaf', /kat/ _kat_
[k_hat] 'cat', /gras/ _gras_ [gras] 'grass'.  Also, compare it with
phonemically long vowels; e.g., /aal/ _aal_ [?Q:l] 'eel', /baart/ _baart/
[bQ:3`t] 'beard', /maand/ _maand_ [mQ:nt] (~ [mQ:.nt]) 'moon', 'month', and
with extra-length (/daame/ >) /daaam/ [dQ:.m] 'lady', (/neeze/ >) /neeez/
_nees'_ [ne:.z] (not *[ne:s]) 'nose'.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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