LL-L "Phonology" 2008.06.15 (05) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 15 June 2008 - Volume 05
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2008.06.15 (03) [E]

Yes, Jews were the only Amsterdammers before WO II using the uvular r in
their local city Dutch/Hollandic accent. Modern Israeli Ivrith has it, and
I heard it even from Italian and Russian Jews as well. Moroccan and
Tunisian Jewish Arabic only has uvular r, which has been merged with
ghayn. So is it possible that uvular r is a kind of Jewish shibboleth,
which was already present in Biblical times in the Holy Land, and which
the Jews in the diaspora cultivated as a part of their identity?

Ingmar

Ingmar, I definitely don't think the uvular /r/ was spread by the Hanseatic
League. We can safely assume that all of Northern Germany used the apical
trill. I suspect that most of the spread of the uvular /r/ emanated from
the
Rhine area and west of it. What I find very interesting is that a good
number of Eastern Yiddish dialects have the uvular /r/. This is surprising
considering that they are surrounded by East European languages that use
the
apical /r/. Two possibilities spring to mind: (1) it goes back to the
Franco-Rhenish area in which Yiddish began, or (2) it began as a type of *
daytshmerizm*, a German-inspired affectation, in more recent times.

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

Ingmar,

I would be surprised if the spread of uvular /r/ were due to Jewish
transmission (at least in place other than the Netherlands). How would a
largely despised minority considered "foreigner" be able to do so?

Most Ashkenazi Jews in the Netherlands arrived relatively late and came from
German- and French-speaking parts, aside from East Europeans many of them
used uvular /r/ in Yiddish.

I believe that the leveling of /r/ and *ghayn* in North African Jewish
Arabic is due to French-inspired "affectation" in French colonies. (Most new
North African immigrants I met in Israel tried their best to pass as
French.) Jews of Egypt (once a British colony) do not use a uvular sound for
/r/.

The uvular articulation of /r/ in Modern Hebrew clearly belongs to strong
European adstrata.

The voiced uvular fricative is most definitely not associated with /r/ in
the Semitic languages. In pre-modern Hebrew and in Judeo-Aramaic it is the
pronunciation of "soft" *gimel* (ג), in non-Jewish Aramaic with "soft" *
gamal* (ܓ), in Arabic with *ghayn* (غ), and in Maltese it doesn't seem to
exist.

I rather think that the spread of uvular /r/ in Europe emanated from French
via the French craze in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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