LL-L 'Orthography' 2006.11.03 (03) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 03 November 2006 * Volume 03
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Orthography

Jonny:

Wat door verkeyrd an is, hebb 'ck in al de Joorn ouk no ne recht begreepen! Man-
van de Oul-Sassischen Wuddeln uut seyhn is 't woll eyn 'Extra-Lautverschiebung'
(regional), un ick bünn 't (van uns Baas) ouk all wiis worr'n, wat dat bii
etymoloogsche Ünnersoyken groude No-Deyl'n hett. Koomst mitünner opp 'n
verkeyrden Patt bii.

Jonny, I have very little time right now, having just returned from San Francisco
and trying to play catch-up.

This is were it pays to study the basics of phonology and to find out about the
differences between phonology and phonetics.  

As I said, I need to be brief here.

In most Low Saxon dialects (at least of Germany), the long /a/ phoneme (/aa/) is
pronounced [Q:] (much like _a_ in American English "call").  In the dialects of
the Lower Elbe region, it is pronounced [o:], as in German _Boot_ and Scots
_tho_.  [Q:] and [o:] are merely dialectically distributed allophones of the same
phoneme, which is [aa].  This is similar with English _call_, with the American
allophone [Q:] and the [o:] allophone of Southern England, Australia and New
Zealand (thus [k_hQ:L] versus [k_ho:L]).  The underlying phoneme is the same in
all dialect, in the Low Saxon case as well as in the English case.  The most
efficient and interdialectically useful writing system is phoneme-based.  By
writing in Low Saxon _kaam_, _kaom_, _koam_, _kåm_, _kååm_ and _koom_ for '(I)
come' (which is phonemically /kaam/ in all cases) people try to write
"phonetically" to bring out what they consider special to their dialects, thereby
erect orthographic barriers between dialects and making it more difficult to read
other dialects than to uderstand them when they are spoken.

In addition, at least in perfectly proficient Lower Elbe speech you can tell the
phonetic difference between phonemic /aa/, /oo/ and /ou/; e.g.,

/staal/ [sto:l] 'steel' (elsewhere [st@:l])
/stoul/ [sto.Ul] ~ [ste.Ul] 'chair', 'stool'

/baan/ [bo:n] 'way', 'course' (elsewhere [b@:n])
/boun/ [bo.Un] ~ [be.Un] 'bean'

/maan(d)/ [mo:n(t)] 'moon' (elsewhere [mQ:n(t)])
/moun/ [mo.Un] ~ [me.Un] 'poppy'

/daan/ [do:n] 'done' (elsewhere [d@:n])
/doun/ [do.Un] ~ [de.Un] 'to do'

/paal/ [p_ho:l] 'pod' (elsewhere [p@:l])
/paal/ [p_ho:l] 'pole', 'staff' (elsewhere [p@:l])
/poul/ [p_ho.Ul] ~ [p_he.Ul] '(earth) pole'
/poul/ [p_ho.Ul] ~ [p_he.Ul] 'Pole (of Poland)'

I don't want to confuse the issue, but please let me add for everyone's
information that there are still a few dialects that retain the difference
between /oo/ and /ou/, which in most dialects, including those of the Lower Elbe
have merged to /ou/.  Those few most conservative dialects that retain the
difference have [sto.Ul] 'chair', 'stool', [bo:n] 'bean', [mo:n] 'poppy', [do.Un]
'to do' and [p_ho:l] 'pole', 'Pole', besides [stQ:l] 'steel', [bQ:n] 'way',
[mQ:n(t)] 'moon', [dQ:n] 'done' and [p_hQ:l] 'pod', 'pole', 'staff'.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron

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