LL-L "Phonology" 2004.05.14 (02) [E]

Fri May 14 16:41:29 UTC 2004

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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: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2004.05.13 (09) [E]

Dear Reinhard,

 WRT the voiced /h/ in Afrikaans

> So ... Did the voiced "h" in Afrikaans ...
> (1) come from Europe?
> (2) come from Khoi-San and/or Bantu varieties?
> (3) spring up independently?

    I would have gone for (3), because borrowings seem to come through
without the nazalisation.
    As for (2), Afrikaans was pretty well established (as 'die Taal') before
we met the Bantu, & I would aver, even before we settled at the Cape, & came
into living contact with the Khoikhoi. There is a lot of borrowing, from
both sources, but minimal incorporation. The only one I can think of,
possibly, from the Khoikhoi is 'Eina!' where a Hollander says 'Au!', & the
Nama Hottentot, 'N//a!' (using the '//' for a tip-velar click).
    On (1) I would have to defer to you.

> So why not go for the obvious and
> consider the influence of the many, many French Huguenots that came to be
> absorbed into the Afrikaans-speaking population?

With the very timid objection that I would associate that sort of
pehenomenon with a language substrate rather than an accretion (I can offer
no scholarly motivation for this opinion).

You have certainly piqued me with this stuff. I have long been interested in
specifically these peculiarities (in the sense that they are unusual, not
that they are unique) of Afrikaans: The voiced 'h', the nasalised 'n',  the
closing negative & the 'Eina!'.

    Thanks for the "exotic" phones  info

Yrs Sincerely,
    Mark

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From: marco [evenhuiscommunicatie] <marco at evenhuiscommunicatie.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2004.05.13 (06) [E]

Luc wrote about West-Flemish:

> >Indeed, there is a dfference between words that begin with an "h" and
words
> >that begin with a vowel.
> >There is a more or less pronounced glottal stop for words that begin with
a
> >vowel. Some of the stops are hardly heard but the local speakers do hear
> the

Frédéric concluded for the variety of West-Flemish spoken in France:

> But I found some examples of sentences beginning with a vowel or a "h" :
> "hoe gaet 't ?"
> I did never heard it with a glottal stop and I would find that odd! But
> theorically it's possible.
>
> In contrast in the sentences:
> "waer is 'n boek?
> Up 'n tafel."
>
> I and my mother can use a glottal stop before de "u" of up. But this is
not
> systematic and both are well understood.

I did some experimenting with some of my neighbours this morning (which was
fun!) and I have to agree with both Luc and Frédéric. In Zeelandic, we have
glottal stops as well and it seems to me that we prefer to use them for
words that begin with a vowel rather than for words that sound with a
(silent) h.
Like Frédéric mentioned for French-Flanders: here in Zeeland, we also tend
to 'glue' the article to the substantive:

Dutch - Zeelandic
dat huis - da-t'uus (written: dat 'uus)
de heer - de-n'eêre (written: den 'eêre)
etc.

Ron wrote:

> Folks, which leads me to another interesting topic: the voiced /h/ [ɦ] in
> Afrikaans.
(...)
> Does anyone have any idea why Afrikaans /h/ is voiced in most contexts?
> What might its origin be?  Is this sound used in any Dutch, Flemish or
> Zeelandic varieties?

I think both Frédéric and Luc will agree with me if I say that all Zeelandic
and French/West-Flemish dialects where 'g' and 'ch' are pronounced as an h,
this h is defintely a voiced h. For non-speakers: check the small
soundsample at www.devrijedomburger.nl/geluid/opvolger.mp3 and note words
like 'hoeed' (Du. goed) and 'zehhen' (Du. zeggen) with voiced h's.
I wouldn't be suprised if that is the origin of the Afrikaans voiced h.

There are more features in Afrikaans which show a somewhat irregular use of
h/g/silent h when compared to Dutch and many other Lowlands varieties. I
can't think of any good examples now, but I know there are quite a few words
where Afrikaans like Zeelandic has no h and Dutch has, where Afrikaans like
Zeelandic has an h and Ducht has a g and where Afrikaans has an h and Dutch
has not (just as in the case of hypercorrection when speakers of Zeelandic
try to speak 'proper' Dutch).

Regards,

Marco

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From: marco [evenhuiscommunicatie] <marco at evenhuiscommunicatie.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2004.05.13 (06) [E]

Ron:

> As for nasalization (assimilation of vowels to following nasal consonants)
> in Afrikaans, I personally see it merely as a more "extreme" form of what
> exists in the European Lowlands.  Many Lowlands Saxon varieties nasalize
> pretty strongly also, though the nasal consonant is not deleted in the
> process as it can be in Afrikaans (e.g., Afrikããs).  This more "extreme"
> form in Afrikaans could have been developed independently or could have
been
> reinforced by other languages.  Sure, the Portuguese were "down there."
But
> their nasalized vowels have quite a different color, usually involving
> diphthongs with medialized vowels.  So why not go for the obvious and
> consider the influence of the many, many French Huguenots that came to be
> absorbed into the Afrikaans-speaking population?

Speaking of the more obvious: note that Zeelandic, one of the main 'sources'
of Afrikaans, has very strong nasalation as wel. The same goes for quite a
few West-Flemish dialects. Speakers notice this phenomenon very well and
sometimes try to capture in their spelling: standard Dutch 'n' in certain
positions is then spelled 'ng' or even 'ñ'.
Standard works like 'Dialect op Walcheren' (E. J. van den Broecke-de Man,
Vlissingen 1987) use the spelling 'ng' and describe the Zeelandic 'n' as the
same as in French _bonjour_. A few examples:

Dutch - Zeelandic (examples are in the dialect of the Isle of Walcheren):
hand - 'angd
tanden - tangn/tangden
wij/ons - ongs/oôs
pink - piengke
vonk - voengke
branden - brangde(n)/brangn
kan ik - kang'k

and of course:
Afrikaans - Afrikaangs/Afrikaongs

Indeed a lot of French Huguenots came to South-Africa. But almost all of
them came via the Netherlands and sometimes lived here for quite some time
(sometimes even two or three generations) and are quite likely to have
learnt the local language/dialect already before moving to SA.
I think that when you speak about French/Huguenot influence on Afrikaans,
you have to consider the fact that if it you're indeed dealing with French
feature, most of the time that feature was already present in Zeelandic
and/or Dutch before arriving in South-Africa. E.g. Zeelandic has far more
words of French origin than any other language variety spoken in the
Netherlands or Flanders. Including Flemish, Brabantish and indeed Afrikaans.
The only exceptions are probably the Brabantish dialect of Brussels and the
modern, eroding variety of the West-Flemish as spoken in France nowadays.

Regards,

Marco

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

Thanks, Mark and Marco!

Mark:

> the nasalised 'n'

Sorry to nitpick, but an /n/ is nasal by definition.  I think what you meant
to say was "nasalization before /n/."

In Lowlands Saxon (Low German), nasalization of vowels (clearly audible but
not as striking as in Afrikaans) applies before all nasals (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/
(/N/)), is stronger before syllable-final nasals.  It coincides with
lengthening, because nasals and liquids cause directly preceding vowels to
be slightly lengthened; e.g.

kim (<Kimm>) [kʰɪ˜ˑm] 'horizon'
keym (<keem>) [kʰɛ˜ˑɪm] 'came'
neem (<nehm>, <nähm>) [ne˜ːˑm] ~ [nɛ˜ːˑm] 'take!'
wen (wenn) [ve˜ˑn] ~ [vɛ˜ˑn] 'when', 'if'
steyn (<Steen>) [stɛ˜ˑɪn] 'stone', 'rock'
ween (<ween>, <wään>) [ve˜ːˑn] ~ [vɛ˜ːˑn] 'been'
kring (<Kring>, <Krink>) [krɪ˜ˑŋ(k)] 'circle'
sinken (<sinken>) [zɪ˜ˑŋkŋ] 'to sink'

Nasalization does not apply (or is much weaker) if there is an intervening
non-nasal consonant; e.g.,

hebben (<hebben>) [hɛbm] 'to have' (but alternative [hɛ˜ːm])
lesen (<lesen>, <läsen>) [leːzn] ~ [lɛːzn] 'to read'
drükken (<drücken>) [drʏkŋ] 'to press', 'to squeeze'
dregen (<dregen>, <drägen>) [dreːgŋ] ~ [drɛːgŋ] 'to carry'

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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