LL-L "Phonology" 2004.07.15 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 15.JUL.2004 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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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: John Duckworth <jcduckworth2003 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Phonology


Ron said:

"Sorry if I seem overly persistent ...  So you are actually saying, aren't
you, that pairs like _heel_ and _eel_, _heart_ and _art_, and _hoar_
and _oar_ are pronounced alike, with or without glottal stop?  I just want
to be sure there isn't something you hadn't thought about before now. ".

True, I haven't thought about it until now, but I still don't think it has
much to do with the presence or otherwise of the glottal stop.The glottal
stop actually performs an important function in the Lancashire Dialect,
often replacing the definite article; this is still often the case in the
very eroded version of the dialect that is spoken today. I have tried
considering whether there is any difference between pairs with etymological
h- or without it when preceded by the article, but it seems to me that there
is not.

Before consonants the definite article is often just a glottal stop /'/, as
in: / am goin t@ ' taun / (I am going to THE town) as opposed to / am goin
t@ taun / (I am going to town).

When I was a child the definite article before a vowel was represented by /
'th / (where th is the theta / thorn sound): / 'thowd man towd me / (the old
man told me). I think it is right to say that the glottal stop may have been
dropped in places. Another variant, which I think may have been an older
version, was to say / t' owd man / (the old man), in which case I am fairly
certain the glottal stop followed the / t /-sound, rather than preceded it.

Now, to get back to h-, in words written with h-, we get the article that
normally precedes vowels. Thus: / i fel in 'th o:l / (he fell in(to) the
hole ) [also / i fel int@ 'th o:l ]. There may be cases today where people
might treat such words as beginning in a consonant, and saying / in ' o:l /,
but these may be a kind of hypercorrection, because I don't remember them
from earlier decades. Of course, some words written with h- followed by a
vowel actually begin with a consonant once the h- isn't pronounced, such as
_huge_, so we would say / in ' yu:j o:l / (in the huge hole).

John Duckworth
Preston, UK


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