Linguistic and geographical Linguistic and geographical co-occurrence constraints on co-occurrence constraints on /r/ and /g/ in Dutch dialects /r/ and /g/ in Dutch dialects

Ton Goeman

(Meertens Institute Amsterdam)

Hans Van de Velde

(Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Based on a new dialect surveyBased on a new dialect survey

A. Dutch-Flemish Dialect Conference 1975

B. Lacuna’s in phonological and morphological dialect knowledge

C. Structure of changing dialects at the end of the 20th century

D. Fieldwork

–

HOW?HOW? A. Questionnaire & transcriptions in narrow

IPA

B. Localities– 410 localities in the Netherlands– 210 localities in Belgium– 52 localities in the province of Friesland

C. Collaboration– Meertens Instituut / Ghent / Leuven / Groningen /

Fryske Akademy / Free University Amsterdam

Results fieldwork 1982-1992Results fieldwork 1982-1992

Transcriptions entered in databank:

• Netherlands: 365 localities; 25 by Groningen: Drente• Belgium: 189 localities• Total: 554

– Friesland: 23 localities only fragmentarily

Distribution

of the 554 localities

Phonology: what?Phonology: what?

Vocalism:– Long (also historically long)– Short (id.)– Diphthongs (id.)

With & without front mutation factor

Open & closed syllables

Vocalism (cont.)Vocalism (cont.)Before all rhyme positions (voiced &

voiceless ):– -t/d, s/z, p/b, f/v, k, ch/g, l, r, n, m, w, j,

morpheme final, st/sp/sk, ts/ps/ks, ft/cht,– r+t/d, r+s/z, r+labial, l+velar, r+l, r+n, r+m– n+t/d, n+s/z, m+p, ng(+velar)– l+alveolar, l+labial, l+velar, l+m– l+CC, r+CC, n+CC

Consonants wordinitially (before Consonants wordinitially (before different vowels)different vowels)New with respect to past projects:

– Completeness– Unknown state of affairs: e.g.:

pronunciation of / g /: ‘soft’ g en ‘harsh’ g

• Not transcribed in the past• Not retraceable by postal questionnaire

• Example as making part of future volume of FAND: ‘g’ in geven ‘give’: __[-back]

/ƒ/ in ‘geven’

Fieldwork Amsterdam Leuven

Gent Groningen

Total: 1878 wordforms, Total: 1878 wordforms, wordgroups or sentenceswordgroups or sentences

286 wordforms with / g /76 wordinitial wordforms with / r /62 wordfinal wordforms with / r /

Items chosen for /r/Items chosen for /r/Initial / r /

– riem ‘belt’ / i / regen ‘rain’ / e. /, rest ‘rest’ / E /, rood ‘red’ / o. /

Initial / r / cluster– vroeg ‘early’ / u /, groen ‘green’, droog ‘dry’ /o./,

groot ‘great’ /o./Final / r /

– bier ‘beer / i. /’, weer ‘anew’ / e. /, meer ‘more’, zwaar ‘heavy’ / a, /, zuur ‘sour’ / y /, duur ‘expensive’ / y /

Items chosen for /g/Items chosen for /g/

Initial (/ I , e. , E , a , A, ç , o. , u /)– gisteren ‘yesterday’, geel ‘yellow’, geven ‘give,

geld ‘money’, gapen ‘yawn’, gaan ‘go’, gal ‘bile’, god ‘god’, goot ‘gutter, goed ‘good’

Final (/ e. , E, u /)– deeg ‘pastry’, weg ‘way, vroeg ‘early’

Overall frequency of variants and Overall frequency of variants and geographical distributiongeographical distribution

Frequencies of variants may be more or less the same when the whole linguistic area is taken into account

• tables

However, the distribution of variants may differ when we look at their geographical spread

• maps

riem ‘belt’ regen ‘rain’ rest ‘id.’ rood ‘red’

alv. tap (tap) 0.11 0.11 0.12 0.10

apical trill (atr) 0.61 0.62 0.56 0.67

uv. trill (uvt) 0.14 0.12 0.13 0.14

uv. fric. (uvf) 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.06

Table 1 NetherlandsPercent of r-variants > 4 wordinitially

Before high front vowel

Before front vowels

Before back vowel

bier‘beer’

weer‘anew’

meer ‘more zwaar‘heavy

zuur‘sour’

duur‘expensive’

alv. tap (tap) 0.10 0.12 0.11 0.08 0.10 0.10

apical trill (atr) 0.50 0.50 0.45 0.21 0.24 0.48

velar fric. (vef) 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01

velar appr.(vap) 0.01 0.07 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.02

uv. trill (uvt) 0.10 0.09 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.10

uv. fric. (uvf) 0.07 0.08 0.06 0.08 0.07 0.09

sjwa 0.10 0.06 0.10 0.37 0.37 0.08

r-color (voc) 0.05 0.04 0.08 0.06 0.05 0.06

Table 2 NetherlandsPercent of r-variants > 4 wordfinally

After high front vowel

After front vowels

After low front vowel

After front rounded vowels

vroeg ‘early’ droog ‘dry’ groen ‘green’ groot ‘great’

alv. tap (tap) 0.15 0.13 0.16 0.16

apical trill (atr) 0.62 0.62 0.58 0.59

uv. trill (uvt) 0.12 0.13 0.14 0.13

uv. fric. (uvf) 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.08

Table 3 NetherlandsPercent of r-variants > 5 initial clusters

After back vowels

gisteren‘yesterday’

geel‘yellow’

geven‘give’

geld‘money’N

goot ‘gutter’N

palatal (pal) 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.32 0.25

velar (vel) 0.65 0.65 0.64 0.54 0.64

uvular (uv) 0.03 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.06

faryng. (far) 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01

h 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.04 0.04

gapen ‘yawn’ gaan ‘go’ gal ‘bile’ god ‘god’ goed ‘goed’

palatal (pal) 0.16 0.15 0.19 0.15 0.17

velar (vel) 0.68 0.69 0.64 0.67 0.67

uvular (uv) 0.05 0.04 0.05 0.05 0.05

faryng. (far) 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01

h 0.11 0.11 0.12 0.12 0.12

Table 4 Netherlands and Belgium (N=Netherlands only)Percent of g-variants > 4 wordinitially

Different realisations of ‘palatal’ /g /

Goeman (1999)

Before front vowel

Before front vowels

Before / E / and / o. /

(back variants of / a / e.g. in the east)

Back vowels

deeg ‘pastry’ weg ‘way’ vroeg ‘early’

pal 0.41 0.32 0.29

vel 0.50 0.60 0.57

uv 0.05 0.07 0.06

zero 0.02

Table 5 NetherlandsPercent of g-variants > 4 wordfinally

Front ~back vowels

/ r / versus / g / word initially/ r / versus / g / word initially

Front vowels

/ r / versus / g / word finally/ r / versus / g / word finally

Front vowels

Conclusions for / r / and / g /Conclusions for / r / and / g /– Regions with velar g show also apical r– Regions with palatal g show uvular R

• But not in the North East• Not word finally in North Holland

– Regions with extremely fronted /g/ are kernel regions with uvular R

– Initially• Region with faryngeal~h g show apical r

– Finally• Region with velar g show apical r

– In Zealand

Conclusions specific for / g /Conclusions specific for / g /

Word finally, allophonic distribution is more clear than word initially

Sometimes word specificContrary to the Standard Language,

uvular / g / is in the minority in the dialects

Conclusions specific for / r / Conclusions specific for / r / compared to / g /compared to / g /Initially, no allophonic vowel

distribution effects for / r /• Cfr. Van Reenen

– While light allophonic vowel distribution effects for for / g /

South and East /R/ from Germany– Cfr. Van Reenen (Cologne?)

– While palatal / g / autochtonous (or from Cologne?)

– Cfr. for Cologne Weijnen

geel geld goed groen groot vroeg weg deeg droog echtbilabial 0.6 0.6pharyngal 1.4 1.4 1.7 2.6 3.1h 3.7 4.3 2.8 0.3labiodental 0.3nul 2.6palatal 33.0 32.7 31.5 28.7 25.6 30.4 33.5 42.6 31.8 34.1schwa 0.3uvular 6.3 5.1 6.5 6.5 6.3 6.5 7.4 5.1 4.8 6.8velar 55.4 56.5 57.4 61.9 64.8 59.1 58.8 52.0 35.8 58.8missing 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 27.0 0.3

Realization of (g)

bier duur meer weer zuur zwaar regen rest riem rood vroeg droog groen groot

aap 0.3 0.6 3.1atr 51.4 49.4 46.9 48.9 25.3 21.9 64.2 59.1 63.1 66.5 63.9 64.2 60.5 61.6

nul 0.6 1.4 0.9 0.3

paf 0.3ret 0.9 0.3 0.6 0.9 0.3

rtr 1.1 1.1 0.9

sjw 10.2 8.2 10.2 6.3 37.8 38.1sui 0.3 0.3 1.1 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.3

tap 10.8 10.2 11.4 11.9 10.2 8.2 11.1 12.5 11.6 10.5 15.3 13.6 16.8 16.8

uvf 7.7 9.4 6.0 8.8 7.7 8.5 8.2 7.1 8.0 6.5 8.5 8.0 7.4 8.0uvt 10.2 9.9 8.8 9.4 9.9 9.7 12.8 13.9 14.2 14.2 12.2 13.6 14.5 13.1

vap 0.9 2.0 4.3 6.8 1.4 2.3 0.3 0.6 1.1 0.9 0.3

vef 2.0 0.9 1.1 1.1 2.6 1.1voc 5.7 6.5 8.0 4.0 5.1 6.0

gg 0.9 2.7 2.3 0.9 0.3 0.3 4.8 0.3

Realization of (r)

(r)CrV (r)final (g)initial (g)final(r)initial .96 .88 -.40 -.32(r)CrV .89 -.42 -.34(r)final -.41 -.34(g)initial .86

Correlation Coefficientsall correlations are significant, p<.001

Fieldwork, IPA transcriptions or Fieldwork, IPA transcriptions or data entry/correction Amsterdamdata entry/correction Amsterdam

– J. Aben, B. van den Berg, J. Buitenhuis, D. Coppes, J. Daan, M. Engelen, M. Fransen, L. Gijsbers, T. Goeman, R. Hofstee, E. van Houten, T. de Jong, I. Kemperman-van Driel, A. Klaassen, M. Klamer, G. Kocks, J. Kruijssen, Lutz, E. Matthijs, M. van Mulken, A. Ottow-Kolman, B. Pijn, S. van der Ree, P. van Reenen, K. van Reenen-Stein, A. de Reus, J. de Rooij, M. Schellevis, M. Stols, H. Veenhof-Haan, P. Veerman, P. van Vliet, A. de Vries, C. van Zaanen