LL-L "Language politics" 2007.06.16 (07) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  16 June 2007 - Volume 07

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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2007.06.16 (03) [E]

Beste Diederik,

kannst dat noch commod  lees'n?? Wenn nich- denn bruukst Du en nieuve Brill,
miin Jongje! Haar 'ck in Diin Öller jüst sou maakt- hebb 'ck ouk vandage
noch plezeer an.

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm

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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2007.06.16 (03) [E]

Beste Diederik,

You wrote:
>
> In certain cases however, palatalized final t/d ("mouillering") does
> occur along the western fringes of Brabantish (towards river Dender),
> where you could hear:
>
> "a bajtsj" for "hij bijt"
> "vajtsj" for "vet"
> "wintsj" for "wind"...
> >>>
>
> western? strange, since i thought this was typically for Limburg...

Sometimes happens that certain phenomena were once active on a much
bigger scale. Let me give you three examples:

  1. Unrounding of vowels is still prevalent in places located
     approximately 25 km from Brussels ("muur" > "mier", "deur" >
     "dee(r)...). Inside that circle however, excessive rounding can be
     observed, even hypercorrection. This ring-shaped outer area (so
     called "relictgebied") suggests that change was once triggered by
     one city, Brussels in this case. If this is true, it would also
     mean that unrouding was much more widespread in a distant past
     (before Brussels started gaining influence).
  2. Elision of "e" in final "en": "zetten" > "zetn", "fouten" >
     "foutn" can within Belgium both be heard in Flanders ànd Northern
     Limburg (somewhere around Peer if I remember well)...and further
     down the road in Germany of course. Complementary is the dropping
     of the final "n": "zetten" > "zette", "fouten" > "foute", which
     assumedly spread from Leuven northward and as such split a region
     that used to be much bigger before.
  3. Diphthongization must once have been an innovation as well, since
     both in the west and the east of Belgium, people still say
     "bit(e)n" (> "bijten") and "huus", "hoes" (> "huis").

One could say that the center of both northern Belgium and the
Netherlands has regularly sort of driven a (linguistic) wedge between
the South-West and the North-East of the Bene(lux).

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx
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