LL-L 'Language contacts' 2006.06.10 (03) [E]

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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 (Zeeuws)
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L O W L A N D S - L * 10 June 2006 * Volume 01
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L 'Language contacts' 2006.06.09 (06) [E]

>From: 'Isaac M. Davis' <isaacmacdonalddavis at gmail.com>
>Subject: LL-L 'Language contacts' 2006.05.29 (07) [E]
>
>Ron wrote:
>
>>The study of phoneme inventory change by way of lexical loaning is pretty
>>interesting. In most cases of sustained contacts, there are layers or
>>strata of loans, and oftentimes these are different levels of adaptation and
>>show phonological changes.

This happens quite a bit in English, doesn't it?

For example there's the /Z/ phoneme in words borrowed from French, such
as "espionage" and "triage".

Some English speakers will pronounce the /x/ in words borrowed from
Scots or German such as "loch" and "Bach".

As a lipreader, I divide speakers into two types, which you could call
"conscious" and "unconscious". Conscious speakers are able to modify
their speech, and, unless there are other factors preventing it, will
modify their speech patterns so that I can lipread them. Unconscious
speakers, on the other hand, seem to speak without really being aware of
their speech and tend to speak fast and be unable to slow down, can't do
anything to make consonants more visible, and are pretty much impossible
to lipread.

It seems to me that conscious speakers are the ones most likely to
pronounce the /x/ sound in English when borrowed, although in the case
of /Z/ it involves naturalised words which they learned early and
therefore can pronounce.

I think conscious speakers are also more likely to pronounce Welsh place
names correctly, avoid saying "free" when they mean "three", and learn
new languages just for fun (as opposed to out of sheer necessity :)

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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

Folks,

In the preceding issue today ("Negation"), I wrote:

> I've noticed that Australian English speakers often do it 
> the way of the first Scots example ("I'll see if I can't 
> do that"), and I've been wondering if this is
> (not) a case of Scots influence or substrate. 

The more I learn about Scots (and Scottish English) language the more I am
convinced that Scots influences in Australian English are much stronger than they
may seem to be at first glance.  (I think the Cockney-like phonology of
Australian English tends to divert people's attention or prevent most of them
from delving any deeper.)  

I would even go as far as to say that this applies to culture as well and is
especially noticeable in the predominant sense of humor.  I often suspected that
I was being misled in that most of my closest Australian friends happen to be of
Lowlands Scottish descent (going back to the generations of grandparents or
great-grandparents, if not farther back).  In fact, the understated and sometimes
seemingly somewhat "sober," "straight-faced" or even caustic joking we get from,
say, our Sandy, Andy and Tom comes with almost the same feel as the one I get
from my closest Australian friends.  But I noticed the same linguistic and
cultural traits in other "dinky-dye" Australians as well.  

It would be interesting to know if our Australian Lowlanders and also experienced
others, such as Críostóir and Tom, have made similar observations.  Perhaps it's
not as obvious to Tom, because he's a born and raised Scot living in Australia,
and it may be more striking to me because I have lots of first-hand, everyday
experience in England, Australia and North America as well, only predominantly
indirect experience with Scotland.  However, Críostóir and Tom, and others like
them, *are* exposed to English and North American language and culture as well.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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