LL-L "Morphology" 2003.02.24 (12) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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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: Stella en Henno <stellahenno at hetnet.nl>
Subject:   LL-L "Morphology" 2003.02.23 (03) [E]

> From: Theo Homan <theohoman at yahoo.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Pronouns" 2003.02.22 (05) [E/LS]
>
> > From: Holger Weigelt <platt at holger-weigelt.de>
> > Subject: Pronouns
> >
> > > From: Peter Meylof <p.meylof at planet.nl>
> > > Subject: Persoonlike veurnoamwoordn [LS]
> and others:
>
> I was waiting / hoping for something that isn't
> coming:
> the dualis [we-both / you-both].
>
> As far as I know lowl.ll. use the dualis only in some
> Frisian villages on the German coast: 'wat' [we-both]
> and 'jat' [you-both]. So I was informed some 25 years
> ago by 2 linguists who had their origins there.
>
> The dualis was regular [more or less] in Oldgermanic.
>
> Linguistically speaking the dualis is not something
> special; it is to be found the world round.
>
> But can you remember any traces of the dualis in your
> home-language?
> Are there any special ways to express we-both and
> you-both and they-both in your home-language?
> And would you ask your grandgrandmother about it?
>
> vr. gr.
> Theo Homan

Well, as said, this does occur in some North Frisian dialects. I have only
been able to find them for the mainland dialects (no traces on the islands)
in the Mooring and Wiedingharder varieties.

Mooring:
 1st p. dual : wat (nom)-- unk(acc/dat) -unken (possesive);
 2nd p. dual: jat (nom)-- junk (acc/dat) - junken (possesive).

Wiedingharde (closely related neighbouring variety) [same sequence]
wät - onk - onken ; jät - jonk -jonken.

All other Frisian dialects have long lost it, and in fact I have sources
that say that these mainland North Frisian dialects are the only West
Germanic languages to have preserved a separate dual. There is no dual in
the 3rd person. Even the highly conservative Wangerooger dialect (now
extinct, but well described) has not a trace that I have been able to find.

Reconstruction: Mooring a and Wiedingharde ä regularly come from Old Frisian
i in closed syllable. The u - o change is also a regular one (for
Wiedingharde) so we
reconstruct Old Frisian *wit and *jit (maybe from older Germanic *git with g
> j as common in Frisian ?) and *unk, *junk as object forms.
One of my sources indeed gives *wit, *unker (poss) *unk.
For the second person: *iit (from Old Germanic *jut (?)), *iunker (poss),
*ink.
Well, *ink has no descendent (should have been eg. Mooring *ank or such
like) but the genitive *iunker suggests the origin of the jonk/junk forms.
There has been sufix substitution in junker > junken etc. (to a "weak
genitive" I think).

Henno Brandsma

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