LL-L "Phonology" 2012.04.28 (02) [EN]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 28 April 2012 - Volume 02
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <roerd096 at PLANET.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2012.04.27 (01) [EN]

In the Netherlands, -e for Standard Dutch -en is very widespread, not only
in most the Low Frankish areas,
but also in the Frisian speaking areas. In Belgium, the same in Brabantish
and Limburgish areas.
Colloquial spoken Standard Dutch usually pronounces -en as -e, in the
Netherlands (not in Belgium).

But not so in Zeeland (NL) and Flanders (B): there the nasal in -en is
clearly pronounced, as is the case in the Low Saxon speaking provinces.
Often even the e (schwa) of -en is silent here, so that only -n is heard.

Anyway, imho the silence of -n in -en could have something to do with
several things (in Dutch):

first: in many dialects, singular nouns that ended in final -e once (and
still do in Standard German), dropped this -e
so that -e could become the new suffix to mark plural. -e was already a
common plural marker for nouns ending in
a consonant.

second: in many dialects, the conjungation of adjectives was simplified
when the number of genders was reduced to two (common vs neuter): instead
of "een groten man" next to "ene grote vrouwe", it became "een grote man"
and "een grote vrouw", so "groten" lost its final -n

third: in Frisian, the language once spoken in most of the Northern
Netherlands, including the area which is now the Randstand, verbs end in -e
in the plural persons present. This -e is from an older einheitsplural
-eth, not from -en,
but in Standard Dutch it's spelt -en but pronounced -e in most areas.

fourth: many Dutch and Frisian dialects have nasal pronunciations of vowels
(as in French) before -n, and the step from a nasally pronounced -en to -e
is a very small one.
I grew up in a Low Saxon speaking area, and I remember that for us, the
step to pronounce (written) Dutch -en as the colloquial -e (as we heard on
radia and TV) was psycologically too big, instead some, especially girls,
made a nasal schwa of it instead.

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

Thanks, Mike.

But ... supposed -en > -e is not limited to the infinitive suffixes, if you
consider constructions such as wir machen ~ mir mache, and Fraue(n).

I wonder if > -e is a largely Frankish feature, since it is present in
practically all Frankish dialects, from Low to High. Because of historical
Frankish power it could have spread from there. It is definitely very
un-Saxon. The only Low Saxon dialects that have this feature are some in
the far east where they rubbed shoulders with transplanted Frankish ones
among Medieval migrants.

Note also that Eastern Yiddish is of the -en type. Generally speaking, its
Medieval roots are in an area around the Middle Rhine, which is
predominantly Ripuarian speaking, and today's Ripuarian dialects are of the
-e type.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA
*
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