LL-L "Language history" 2009.07.30 (03) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 30 July 2009 - Volume 03
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From:
Subject:

Hi, folks!

John le Grange asked:

Looking at the examples I saw a number of  vowel movements in the various
dialects and this started me thinking about the a/e vowel swings in
Afrikaans and the other Lowlander Languages. I know Nederlands has upon
occassion chosen the a form where German and Afrikaans have an e form e.g.
Nederlands:Paard (Horse) Afrikaans: Perd German: Pferd. But in others the
reverse is true Afrikaans: Gars Nederlands: Gerst (Barley). The in Afrikaans
there are varient forms - Aardappel/Erdappel for Potato, Laagte/Leegte for
the hollow in undulating ground.

John, apparently we are talking about a long vowel followed by /r/ and about
a short vowel followed by /r/. Also there is the case of umlauting. The
differentiation is important in that different processes appear to be
involved among the examples you cited.

It looks as though Standard Dutch and closely related varieties are the off
ones out when it comes to long vowels followed by /r/ in your examples *
aarde* 'earth' (*aardappel* "earth apple" = 'potato' being merely a
derivation) and *paard* 'horse'.

In Old Low Frankish 'earth' is *ertha*. Something "happened" to make Dutch
develop a long /a/ here. There is no Old Low Frankish cognate of *paard*,
since this word and its cognates in related languages were adopted at the
Middle stage, derived from Latin *para-verēdus* 'mail horse' (*verēdus
*possibly
being of Gaulish origin). I don't know if Dutch developed a long /a/ in *paard
*in the same way it did in the case of *aarde *or of the *para-* part caused
it. At any rate, some Dutch varieties have an *ee *here, for instance in
West Flemish, I believe. Limburgish has *aerd* and *paerd* here, "in
between", so to speak. Modern Northern Low Saxon has a front-vocalic
diphthong in both cases: *Eerd'* (*eyrd'*) and *Peerd *(*peyrd*) which in
some dialect (that don't permit triphthongs, counting /r/ as a phonetic
vowel) become *Ierd'* and *Pierd *respectively. Old Saxon has *ertha *for
'earth'. Old Frisian has *erthe *for 'earth', Modern West Frisian *ierde*,
Sater East Frisian *Äide*. Old English has *eorþe*, Middle English *erthe*,
*erd *and *yerth *(with vowel breaking). Being rather conservative, Scots
dialects have preserved *erd* and *yird*.

The case of "barley" represents "e-backing" before /r/, a feature that is
particularly prominent in Low Saxon, such as in *Kark* (cf. Dutch *kerke*,
German *Kirche*) 'church', *Kars ~ Kass* (cf. Dutch *kers*, German* Kirsche*)
'cherry', **Smart (cf. German *Schmerz*) *'*pain' . English and Scots have
experienced some of this, as in "smart", Dutch also, as in *hart* 'heart',
cf. Low Saxon *Hart ~ Hatt*, but German *Herz*.

Finally, there is the case of umlauting, as in Low Saxon *leeg'* (*leyg'*)
'shallow', 'low' > 'inferior', Dutch *laag* 'low' (*leegde ~ laagde* being
nominal derivatives). "Umlauting" denotes a phonological process whereby a
vowel is "fronted" (e.g. a > e) if there is a high vowel in the next
syllable: Old Saxon *lagi* > Low Saxon *lege* > *leeg'*.

I don't think it is impossible that Afrikaans words like *leegde,* *ertappel
* and *perd* are or Low Saxon origin. *Leegde* stands in contrast with *laag
* (cf. Dutch *laag*), and *ertappel* with Dutch *aardappel*. However, in
Afrikaans you have the choice of *ertappel* and *aartappel*. By the same
token, some such words might have also come from non-standard Dutch
dialects.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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