Steffen Höder (University of Kiel)
Low German: A profile of a word language* Abstract: This contribution claims that Modern Low German (as represented by North Low German dialects) is a rather prototypical word language according to the model provided by Auer (2001) and others. The interaction between syllable structure, stress, and phonemic alternations in different contexts is better explained as a consequence of word-related as opposed to syllable-related rules and restrictions. Apart from the relatively high complexity of possible consonant clusters at word boundaries, this view is supported by (a) the stress sensitivity of vocalic and consonantal syllable nuclei, including a highly differentiated vowel system, (b) word-level phonological processes such as word-medial obstruent voicing, and (c) the existence of a word-level suprasegmental phenomenon similar to a pitch accent. On the whole, Low German is even closer to the word language pole of the continuum between word and syllable languages than Standard German. The findings are also relevant in a wider perspective. First, it is of general importance to include dialectal or non-standard varieties in cross-linguistic typological studies and theoretical models. Second, some of the features found in Low German are also found in other non-standard varieties of (Northern) Germany as well as in neighboring languages, such as Danish (including South Jutlandic) and other Scandinavian and Circum-Baltic languages, which suggests an areal or contact-induced relation.
1 Introduction In this contribution, I investigate whether and to what degree Modern Low German is a word language according to the model by Auer (2001). The guiding hypothesis is that Low German has rather typical word-language features, similar to its closest relative and neighbor, High German. The study is based on a synchronic and intralingual analysis of the language’s phonology, although the focus is on features that are different from Standard German and other varieties of High German. While concentrating on dialects in the vicinity of Hamburg, I assume that the results are also representative for the larger proportion of the North Low German dialects, at least those spoken in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. The
* I wish to thank Stig Eliasson and Renata Szczepaniak for their valuable comments on an earlier version, and Jasmin Bliesemann for her help with my English. All remaining errors are, of course, mine.
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empirical evidence comes mainly from a detailed survey of the dialect of Altenwerder (Höder 2010; for similar dialects cf. Kloeke 1913; von Essen 1958, 1964). While Middle Low German served as the official language of the Hanseatic League and a transnational lingua franca, today’s Low German is, from a sociolinguistic point of view, a group of de-standardized and relatively diverse dialects. After a successive language shift towards High German throughout the last centuries, Low German is now mostly restricted to domains of everyday life, and it is normally not used as a written language.¹ A recent study shows that 14% of the population (about 2.6 million) in the traditional Low German-speaking areas claim to be active speakers (Möller 2008: 33; for a comprehensive overview of the sociolinguistic situation cf. Föllner 2004), all of whom of course are bilingual in some variety of North High German. One consequence of this situation is that communication in a bilingual mode, code-switching, and the use of High German loanwords are very common. While this contribution does not focus on such language contact phenomena, established loanwords both from High German and from other languages are included. Recent additional contact-induced changes in Low German, which also affect the phonology, are discussed in Höder (2011b).
2 Low German as a word language 2.1 Criteria While the distinction between syllable and word languages is also relevant from the perspective of general phonetics and phonology (a possible question would be: is there a universally valid hierarchy of phonological units such as the phrase, the word, the foot, the syllable, the mora?), this volume aims at a typological classification based on a set of characteristic features of word and syllable languages. The distinction between the two types basically comes down to whether the syllable or the phonological word (abbreviated as ω) is the most prominent and/or relevant unit in the phonology of a language. Syllable and word languages are thought of as constituting a continuum. Prototypical syllable and word languages are expected to exhibit differences with respect to their word- and syllable-internal phonological structure, their phoneme inventories, the existence of suprasegmental features, and the scope of phonological rules and processes. Drawing on Trubetzkoy’s (1989 [1939]: 29) distinction between the delimitative and the culmi-
1 As a consequence, there are competing orthographies of Low German. All examples in this contribution are given in phonological transcription only.
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native function of phonological units, different word-level features can be classified as boundary markers (such as consonant clusters in High German) or as markers of word coherence (such as the distribution of vocalic nuclei in a word), depending on whether they highlight the word by strengthening its edges or by reinforcing its internal structure. I use a selection of the criteria proposed, among others, by Auer (2001) and Szczepaniak (2007), chosen according to their relevance for and applicability to Low German. These criteria are summarized in Table 1. Table 1: Syllable vs. word languages prototypical syllable language
prototypical word language
stress
distinctive on phrase level
distinctive on word level
syllable structure
simple (preferably CV)
complex (example: consonant clusters)
vowel system
uniform
differentiated (e.g. stresssensitive)
phonological processes
syllable-related (example: resyllabification across word boundaries)
word-related (example: wordmedial allophones, invulnerable word boundaries)
tone (if existing)
syllable-related (one toneme per word-related (one toneme per syllable) word)
quantity (if existing)
uniform (distinctive in all syllables)
stress-sensitive or word-related (distinctive in stressed syllables)
long consonants
exist
do not exist
2.2 Phoneme system As a point of reference, the Low German phoneme inventory is given in Tables 2–4 (for the details of allophonic realization cf. Höder 2010). The consonant inventory is nearly identical to Standard German, except for some minor differences including the absence of phonemic affricates (since Low German has not undergone the High German Consonant Shift). While /r/ is classified as a vibrant in Table 2, it is frequently and increasingly realized as a uvular vibrant [ʀ], or a uvular or even velar fricative [ʁ ɣ]. The alveolo-palatal fricative /ʑ/ is the Low German equivalent to Standard German /j/ and has a wide range of allophones, including at least [j ʝ ʑ ʒ]. Therefore, it is not an exact voiced counterpart of /ʃ/, which is postalveolar and sometimes labialized ([ʃʷ]).
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Table 2: Low German consonants labial
alveolar
plosives
p
b
t
fricatives
f
v
s, sː z
nasals
m
palatal
d
k ʃ
ʑ
n
lateral
l
vibrant
r
velar
x
glottal ɡ h
ŋ
As for the vowels, the picture is more complex and deviates more strongly from Standard German. This is mainly due to the fact that the original vowel quantity is no longer distinctive. The phonemic organization of the vowel system is, as a consequence, based on qualitative distinctions. Compared to Standard German, Low German has six additional vowel qualities (another two distinctive heights and both front and back open vowels). Vowels that were long historically (/i y u e ø o/) still have long allophones in certain contexts. Generally, allophonic length (denoted by a length mark in brackets in Table 3) is restricted to stressed vowels (a) in positions before voiced consonants, (b) in word-final position, or (c) bearing the Knick phoneme (Knick is a suprasegmental phoneme that has been described as an additional quantity or a tonal feature; for details see section 2.5). In addition, the vocalization of postvocalic /r/ has led to the emergence of secondary vowel length, which is distinctive for /a/ and /ɔ/ (cf. /haːt/ ‘hard’ and its Standard German equivalent, hart /hart/). Finally, there are two more diphthongs than in Standard German (/eo̯/ and /ɛɪ̯/).² Table 3: Low German monophthongs front [–rounded]
front [+rounded]
back
close
i(ː)
y(ː)
u(ː)
near-close
ɪ
ʏ
ʊ
close-mid
e(ː)
ø(ː)
o(ː)
open-mid
ɛ
œ
ɔ, ɔː
open
a, aː
ɒ(ː)
2 The quality of the diphthong /eo̯/ is a rather marked feature of the Altenwerder dialect. Other Hamburg dialects have /ɛo̯/; dialects in Schleswig-Holstein normally have /əo̯/.
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Table 4: Low German diphthongs front
back
close-mid
eo̯
open-mid
ɛɪ̯
ɔi̯
open
au̯
ɑi̯
2.3 Stress sensitivity in segmental phonotactics 2.3.1 Syllable structure, word structure, and stress If, as hypothesized, Low German is a word language, then syllable structure should be stress sensitive. It should be impossible to determine the structure of a possible syllable without reference to its position within the phonological word (or its position relative to stress). At first glance, this is obviously the case: There are countless examples of monosyllabic words such as /teo̯/ ‘too, overly’ or /dvaːx/ ‘dwarf’, which by definition represent both possible syllables and possible words, and we can, of course, construct examples that violate both syllable-related and word-related phonotactic rules (*/kmø/, */srofp/). There are also sound sequences that represent possible syllables, but impossible words (cf. the second syllables in /kri.ɡŋ/ ‘get-inf’ and /tsɪ.bl/ ‘onion’).³ Furthermore, some sound sequences clearly represent possible words, but it is hard, and controversial, to determine how many syllables they contain (such as /kom̂/ ‘come-inf’ or /fɪn̂/ ‘find-inf’; the circumflex here denotes the Knick phoneme discussed in section 2.5). At first sight, Low German syllable structure does not differ very much from Standard German. The most salient features are the consonant clusters /st sp sv sm sn sl/, which correspond to clusters beginning with /ʃ/ in Standard German, as well as some unique clusters, viz. /dv tv vr/. All of these clusters occur only word-initially or at the beginning of stressed syllables: (1)
/stɛɪ̯n/ /sprok/ /svat/
‘stone’ ‘language’ ‘black’
3 Neither stress nor syllabicity is marked in the phonemic transcription throughout this article, as neither is considered phonologically distinctive; see below for details. Stress is marked, though, in words or utterances consisting of two or more phonological words. Glossing follows the Leipzig Glossing Rules (Comrie, Haspelmath, and Bickel 2008).
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/smitn/ /snakŋ/ /slaŋ/ /dvaːs/ /tvɛɪ̯/ /vrak/
‘throw-inf’ ‘speak-inf’ ‘snake’ ‘across’ ‘two’ ‘wreck’
Furthermore, syllabic nasals and liquids (/m n ŋ l/ and /r/, realised as [ɐ]⁴) are very common. Unlike the traditional and presumably still default interpretation of syllabic consonants in Standard German, these cannot be analysed as */əC/ sequences in Low German. The two main arguments for a monophonemic analysis are (a) that there is no phonemic /ə/ due to a merger of older /ə/ and /ɪ/ (cf. /dɪkɪ/ ‘thick-f.sg’ and the corresponding Standard German dicke /dɪkə/), and (b) that no vowel is ever pronounced before the consonants in question, not even in very slow and careful speech. (2) /zupm/ /zɪtn/ /zɛɡŋ/ /noɡl/ /votr/
‘drink-inf [alcohol]’ ‘sit-inf’ ‘say-inf’ ‘nail’ ‘water’
Generally, the syllabicity of these consonants is predictable (and hence non-phonemic) from the segmental context, viz. the fact that they are preceded by a consonant and followed by a word boundary or one or two obstruents (cf. /noɡlt/ ‘nail-3sg.pres’). However, the syllabicity of /l/ is difficult to predict in certain words such as /vrøɡlɪx/ ‘grumpy’, which is not syllabified according to the principle of onset maximization as *[ˈvrøː.ɡlɪ̞ç], but is rather trisyllabic ([ˈvrøːɡl̩ɪ̞ç]). In such examples, either the syllabicity of /l/ or the morpheme boundary before the adjectival derivative suffix /-ɪx/ must be granted phonemic status.⁵ A more detailed analysis reveals further differences between Standard German and Low German. One is that the overall system of syllable nuclei in Low German is more differentiated and stress sensitive than the corresponding system
4 In some dialects, this postvocalic and syllabic allophone of /r/ has apparently merged with /a/, which not only gives rise to a different distribution of vocalic and consonantal nuclei (since more syllables contain a phonemic vowel /a/ than a phonemic consonant /r/), but may also lead to an expanded diphthong system (with a possible new class of monophonemic diphthongs and triphthongs emerging from tautosyllabic /Vr/ sequences, e.g. /oa̯ eo̯a̯/ < /or eo̯r/). It remains to be investigated how such a development affects the typological classification of Low German as a word or syllable language. 5 Alternatively, onset maximization could be seen as restricted to word-initial onsets.
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in Standard German. The total number of potential syllable nuclei (abbreviated as X̩) is 26, including 16 monophthongs, 5 diphthongs, and 5 syllabic consonants. Of these phonemes, all but the consonants can occur in stressed syllables (21 nuclei), although stressed /ɒ/ is rare. In pre-tonic syllables, however, no more than five are possible, including four monophthongs and one consonant (/i ɪ ʊ a/ and /r/ [ɐ]): (3) /bilʏtn/ /bɪkikŋ/ /tʊfel/ /kanɛɪ̯l/ /frɡetn/
[biˈlʏ̞tn̩] [bɪ̞ˈkʰikŋ̩] [tʰʊ̞ˈfeːl̞] [kʰaˈnɛɪ̯l] [fɐˈɡetn̩]
‘gradually’ ‘look.at-inf’ ‘too much, too many’ ‘cinnamon’ ‘forget-inf’
In post-tonic syllables, yet another group of nine potential nuclei occurs, including all of the consonants as well as four vowels (/i ɪ a ɒ/): (4) /truriɡɪ/ /lʏtɪ/ /fɪrmɒ/
[ˈtʰruːriɡɪ̞] [ˈlʏ̞tɪ̞] [ˈfɪ̞ɐ̯mɒ]
‘sad-f.sg’ ‘small-f.sg’ ‘company, firm’
As a result, both phonemic and allophonic vowel length as well as diphthongs (which could be analysed as bimoraic and hence as equivalent to long vowels in some underlying way, provided one adopted such a view) are restricted to stressed syllables. Only three nuclei can occur in any type of syllable, viz. /i ɪ a/. Table 5 shows the distribution of nuclei relative to stress (boldface indicates nuclei that are restricted to one position): Table 5: Stress-sensitive nucleus inventory
monophthongs
pre-tonic
stressed
post-tonic
iɪʊa
i y u ɪ ʏ ʊ e ø o ɛ œ ɔ ɔː a aː ɒ
iɪaɒ
diphthongs consonants
eo̯ ɛɪ̯ ɔi̯ au̯ ɑi̯ r
mnŋlr
Of course, names and loanwords (including loans from High German varieties) may exhibit different patterns, such as in the names of the months /au̯ˈɡʊs/ ‘August’ and /ɔkˈteo̯br/ ‘October’, where vowels that are in principle restricted to stressed syllables nevertheless appear in unstressed positions. However, the differences usually decrease with increasing phonological integration. These differences may be illustrated by the alternative forms of names and loanwords given in (5), where structural deviations are gradually reduced by adapting pre- and
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post-tonic vowels as well as, in some cases, shortening the words to monosyllabic or trochaic feet: (5) /maːɡɒˈrɛɪ̯tɒ/ (equivalent to English Margaret) → /maɡaˈrɛɪ̯tɒ/, /ɡrɛɪ̯tɪ/, /mɛɪ̯tɒ/ /ʑeo̯ˈhan/ (equivalent to English John) → /ʑʊhan/ [ʑʊ̞ˈhan], /ʑɪhan/ [ʑɪ̞ˈhan] /preo̯ˈfɛsor/ (‘professor’) → /prʊfɛsr/ [pʰrʊ̞ˈfɛsɐ], /prfɛsr/ [pʰɐˈfɛsɐ] /kɔnfɪrmɒˈtʃeo̯n/ ‘Confirmation (Lutheran Church)’ → /kʊnfrmatʃeo̯n/ [kʰʊ̞nfɐmaˈtʃeo̯n]
The uneven distribution of nuclei between the different syllable types serves as a marker of word coherence. It also reinforces the culminative function of stress: The occurrence and position of the prominent syllable within a polysyllabic word can normally be predicted on the basis of the distribution of syllable nuclei, as only few nuclei can be both stressed and unstressed. However, it is possible to find or construct a few examples where the position of stress is unpredictable. The general rule in such cases is that the stress goes on the first syllable, but there are still some exceptions, most of which include a morpheme boundary (such as / bɪˈstɪk/ ‘cutlery’, with the unstressed prefix /bɪ-/): (6) /bɪlɪx/ → [ˈbɪ̞lɪ̞ç] ‘cheap’ /bɪˈstɪk/ → [bɪ̞ˈstɪ̞k] ‘cutlery’ /balas/ → [ˈbalas] ‘ballast’ /paˈlas/ → [paˈlas] ‘palace’
Thus, the stress sensitivity of the syllable nuclei somewhat paradoxically results in the fact that stress itself, at least within single phonological words, is only marginally distinctive in today’s Low German.
2.3.2 Word-medial consonants Apart from the distribution of nuclei, there is further evidence to support the idea that the phoneme inventory of Low German is best described with reference to the phonological word rather than the syllable, namely the existence of word-based phonological rules. It is apparent that simple syllable-related rules can also have implications for the occurrence or non-occurrence of certain consonants at word boundaries. For example, as in Standard German, a final obstruent devoicing rule (Auslautverhärtung) prohibits voiced obstruents in the coda of a syllable, including word-final syllables. Still, there is no need to invoke an additional word-based rule to explain such restrictions. Such rules are needed, though, to account for the restriction of /h/ to word-initial onsets or the impossibility of word-initial /ŋ/, as in Standard German.
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In addition, Low German has restrictions on word-medial consonants, i.e. consonants that cannot occur at word boundaries. One such example is the alveolar flap [ɾ], which can be interpreted as a word-medial allophone of /d/, even if it is in complementary distribution with both /d/ and /r/ and corresponds diachronically to either sound. It is restricted to a specific context, namely ˈV_Vω or ˈV_L̩ω, where L̩ stands for a syllabic liquid: (7) /fadr/ ‘father’ → [ˈfaɾɐ] /mʊdr/ ‘mother’ → [ˈmʊ̞ɾɐ] /lɛdɪx/ ‘empty’ → [ˈlɛɾɪ̞ç] /haːdr/ ‘shepherd’ → [ˈhaːɾɐ] /tydln/ ‘tie-inf, tether-inf’ → [ˈtʰyɾl̩n]
A similar example is the phoneme /sː/, which has evolved from and is in complementary distribution with the sequence /st/. Phonemic long /sː/ is a characteristic feature of some dialects in the Hamburg area. In other areas, allophonic long [sː] may occur as a realisation of /st/ and alternate with [st]. This phoneme can only occur immediately after a stressed vowel and is always followed by an unstressed nucleus within the same word (ˈV_X̩ω): (8) /vɛsːn/ ‘west’ /zʏsːr/ ‘sister’ /bɛsːɪ/ ‘best-f.sg’
The restriction of this phoneme to a particular word-related, stress-sensitive position certainly qualifies as a typical word-language feature according to the criteria listed in Table 1. At the same time, however, long consonants are rather untypical features of prototypical word languages. While long /sː/ can be seen as a negligible quantity from a synchronic perspective, it shows that (and how) even in a word language typical syllable-language features can re-emerge diachronically, even if /sː/ is only one consonant and does not (yet) form part of a larger inventory of geminates as in classic syllable languages. All in all, the segmental phonotactics supports the hypothesis of Low German being a word language. The delimitative function of certain consonant clusters as markers of word boundaries is roughly equal to their Standard German equivalents. The stress sensitivity of the phoneme inventory and related phenomena, however, mark the coherence of the word as a phonologically relevant unit slightly more strongly than in Standard German.
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2.4 Phonological processes 2.4.1 Word-medial obstruent voicing In addition to word-related distributional rules, there are also word-related phonological processes in Low German. One example is the word-medial obstruent voicing rule, a process which is similar to lenition rules in other German dialects: Voiceless obstruents are replaced by corresponding (or at least homorganic) voiced ones if preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by a syllable nucleus (ˈV_X̩ω). Word-medial obstruent voicing is frequent but optional in most dialects, including Altenwerder: (9) /klɔpm/ ‘knock-inf’ → [ˈkʰlɔpm̩], [ˈkʰlɔbm̩] /ritn/ ‘tear-inf’ → [ˈritn̩], [ˈridn̩] /dɪkɪ/ ‘thick-f.sg’ → [ˈdɪ̞kɪ̞], [ˈdɪ̞ɡɪ̞]
In other dialects, this process can be said to be obligatory. An example is the traditional dialect of Finkenwerder (cf. Kloeke 1913), where all voiceless obstruents in the relevant contexts have become voiced. This change has tremendous consequences within the phoneme system and leads, among other things, to the development of tertiary vowel length, since allophonic length before voiced consonants becomes phonemically distinctive. The Altenwerder contrast between / ritn/ [ˈritn̩] or [ˈridn̩] (with optional word-medial obstruent voicing) ‘tear-inf’ and /ridn/ [ˈriːdn̩] ‘ride-inf’ thus corresponds to a distinction in vowel length in Finkenwerder, whereby /ridn/ (with obligatory obstruent voicing) ‘tear-inf’ is still distinguished from /riːdn/ ‘ride-inf’. Additional restrictions and processes can apply which may vary across dialects. In Altenwerder, for instance, the voicing of /p/ (→ [b]) is restricted to contexts where it is preceded by a phonemically short monophthong (ˈV̆_X̩ω): (10) /pipm/ ‘cheep-inf’ → [ˈpʰipm̩], [ˈpʰibm̩] /klɔpm/ ‘knock-inf’ → [ˈkʰlɔpm̩], [ˈkʰlɔbm̩] /leo̯pm/ ‘run-inf’ → [ˈleo̯pm̩], *[ˈleo̯bm̩]
A similar rule restricts the voicing of /t/ → [d] to occurrences in prenasal position, whereas /t/-voicing results in [ɾ] in other contexts: (11) /smitn/ ‘throw-inf’ → [ˈsmidn̩] /smitr/ ‘thrower’ → [ˈsmiɾɐ]
From a word-based perspective, the alternation between voiced and unvoiced variants can be explained if we assume that there is a tendency towards voiced medial consonants in phonological words or, at least, word-internal trochaic feet
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with medial consonants (ˈVCX̩ω). If such a word-based phonological template exists, it also highlights the coherence of the word and supports its importance as a salient phonological unit. Furthermore, a tendency towards voiced word-medial segments in turn implies that voiceless segments tend to be restricted to the word boundaries – a possible parallel to the role of sonority in syllable structure. The interesting question, then, is whether trochees with consonants other than stops also agree with the proposed pattern. It is worth mentioning that a narrow majority of all consonants are voiced per se and thus already fit into it. As for the remaining consonants, voiceless /h/ does not occur word-medially, and voiceless /sː/, /ʃ/ and /x/ do not have exact voiced counterparts. Word-medial /f/ is quite rare and mostly restricted to loanwords. Thus, it seems indeed reasonable to interpret word-medial obstruent voicing as a process that improves ˈVCX̩ω structures by affecting all voiceless obstruents that have an exact voiced counterpart, i.e. /p t k f s/, but not /sː ʃ x h/.
2.4.2 Stem-final consonants and postverbal /ɪk/ Additional evidence for such a word-based view comes from the case of unstressed postverbal /ɪk/, i.e. the first-person singular subject pronoun. Example (12) shows the infinitives of some verbs as compared to the first-person singular in the present tense: (12) /fâln/ ‘fall-inf’ /ʃrʊbm/ ‘scrub-inf’ /lezn/ ‘read-inf’ /zɛɡŋ/ ‘say-inf’
/ɪk ˈfâl/ ‘I fall-1sg.pres’ /ɪk ˈʃrʊp/ ‘I scrub-1sg.pres’ /ɪk ˈlês/ ‘I read-1sg.pres’ /ɪk ˈzɛx/ [ɪ̞k ˈzɛç] ‘I say-1sg.pres’
Generally the infinitive is formed by adding a nasal suffix, while the first-person singular has a zero affix. In some verbs, the infinitive or the finite form is also marked suprasegmentally (as in /lês/; see section 2.5). Apart from that, we see that there is a regular morphophonological alternation between stem-final voiced and unvoiced obstruents, similar but not identical to the alternations caused by the final devoicing rule in Standard German. While the /l/ does not change,⁶ stem-final /b/ in the infinitive alternates with /p/ in the present tense where it is syllable-final, /z/ alternates with /s/, and /ɡ/ alternates with /x/. However, if the subject pronoun /ɪk/ is placed after the finite verb, the stem-final consonants take on yet a different set of forms:
6 Stem-final /l/ does not alternate with another phoneme, but there is allophonic variation. Postvocalic /l/ is realised as a non-lateral approximant ([l̞]), i.e. without the articulators touching each other. This can be interpreted as the preliminary stage of a vocalization process.
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(13) /ɪk ˈfâl/ ‘I fall’ /ɪk ˈʃrʊp/ ‘I scrub’ /ɪk ˈlês/ ‘I read’ /ɪk ˈzɛx/ ‘I say’
/ˈfal ɪk/ ‘fall I’ /ˈʃrʊb ɪk/ ‘scrub I’ /ˈlez ɪk/ ‘read I’ /ˈzɛx ɪk/ [ˈzɛç ɪ̞k] ‘say I’
Within a syllable-based model, we would have to explain this phonological difference between constructions with preverbal and postverbal /ɪk/ by some kind of two-step resyllabification process across the word boundary. First, the stem-final consonant would be reanalysed as the onset of the second syllable, according to the principle of onset maximization. In a second step, the final devoicing rule would be reversed (or simply would not apply), since the stem-final consonant is not in the coda (any longer): (14) /ˈfâl#.ɪk/ → /ˈfa.l#ɪk/ /ˈʃrʊb~p#.ɪk/ → /ˈʃrʊ.b~p#ɪk/ → /ˈʃrʊ.b#ɪk/ /ˈlêz~s#.ɪk/ → /ˈlê.z~s#ɪk/ → /ˈle.z#ɪk/
Such an approach works well for most verbs and consonantal alternations. However, it fails to account for the deviant behavior of /ɡ/ and /x/, since it predicts forms like */ˈzɛɡ ɪk/ instead of the correct /ˈzɛx ɪk/: (15) /ˈzɛɡ~x#.ɪk/ → ?/ˈzɛ.ɡ~x#ɪk/ → */ˈzɛ.ɡ#ɪk/
From a word-related perspective, the behavior of obstruents before postverbal /ɪk/ can be explained more neatly. A word-based approach would not assume a resyllabification followed by a reversal of final devoicing, but rather an expansion of the phonological word so as to incorporate the postverbal pronoun. Consequently, the word-medial obstruent voicing rule applies to the stem-final consonant where possible. Such a process not only results in the correct realisations of stem-final /b~p/ and /z~s/, but also leads to the correct unvoiced form of stem-final /x/, as this consonant is not affected by word-medial obstruent voicing:⁷ (16) /ˈfâl#ɪk/ → /falɪk/ /ˈʃrʊp#ɪk/ → /ʃrʊpɪk/ → /ʃrʊbɪk/ /ˈlês#ɪk/ → /lesɪk/ → /lezɪk/ /ˈzɛx#ɪk/ → /zɛxɪk/
7 The same rules also apply for parallel morphophonological alternations between /d/ and /t/ (/ lodn/ ‘load-inf’ → /lôt/ ‘load-1sg.pres’) as well as between /b/ and /f/ (/ʃribm/ ‘write-inf’ → /ʃrîf/ ‘write-1sg.pres’). Whether /b/ alternates with /p/ or /f/ is predictable from the preceding vowel. Other dialects have /v~f/ instead of /b~f/; in Altenwerder, /v/ is generally restricted to the onset of stressed syllables. In any case, word-medial obstruent voicing applies before postverbal /ɪk/.
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Additional processes apply in these cases. Some of those, such as the absence of a glottal stop before the vocalic onset of /ɪk/ (cf. /falɪk/ [ˈfalɪ̞k] ‘fall I’ vs. /fâl#ˈɪk/ [fâl̞ˈʔɪ̞k] with contrastive stress on the pronoun), can be predicted by both the syllable-based and the word-based approach. Other phenomena, however, can only be explained as a result of an expansion of the phonological word, such as the loss of Knick in first-person forms with postverbal /ɪk/ (cf. /ɪk ˈlês/ ‘I read’ vs. /lezɪk/), which is in accordance with a phonotactic rule that restricts Knick to word-final syllables (see 2.5).
2.4.3 Expanding phonological words: Function words The notion of the expanding phonological word also proves useful for the analysis of other regular processes in which function words are integrated into a larger phonological unit. One example is the contraction of prepositions and articles (for similar mechanisms in other German varieties, cf. Kabak and Schiering 2006). Low German allows contraction of prepositions and articles in a much more systematic and regular way than Standard German. The Standard German inventory includes only a relatively small and fixed set of lexicalized contractions (e.g. im < in dem ‘in the-dat.sg.m’, aufs < auf das ‘on the-acc.sg.n’), all involving some form of the definite article. In contrast, almost any Low German preposition can be contracted with any oblique form of the definite or the indefinite article. As a result, there are regular paradigms, as illustrated in Table 6: Table 6: Preposition + article contractions def.m.sg (free form: /dɛn/)
def.f.sg, def.pl (free form: /dɛɪ̯/)
def.n.sg (free form: /dat/)
indf (free form: /ɛɪ̯n/)
/bi/ ‘at, by’
/bin/
/biɪ/
/bit/
/bin/
/ʏm/ ‘around’
/ʏm̂/
/ʏmɪ/
/ʏmt/
/ʏm̂/
/ɔp/ ‘on’
/ɔpm/
/ɔpɪ/
/ɔpt/
/ɔpm/
/mɪt/ ‘with’
/mɪtn/
/mɪtɪ/
/mɪt/
/mɪtn/
/ɪn/ ‘in’
/ɪn̂/
/ɪnɪ/
/ɪnt/
/ɪn̂/
Here, the article forms are phonetically reduced in a way that enables their incorporation into the preceding phonological word. The different forms illustrate different possibilities of achieving this aim. The neutral form /dat/ is reduced to /t/ which is attached to the coda of the last syllable of the preposition except where this coda already ends in /t/. The feminine and plural form /dɛɪ̯/ is reduced to the vowel /ɪ/, one of the vowels that are possible in post-tonic syllables. Word-medial obstruent voicing can apply optionally where possible (e.g. in /ɔpɪ/ [ˈɔbɪ̞] ‘on the’
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or /mɪtɪ/ [ˈmɪ̞ɾɪ̞] ‘with the’). The most complex mechanism affects the masculine and indefinite forms /dɛn/ and /ɛɪ̯n/, which are (a) reduced to /n/ and attached to the preposition as a coda consonant if the preposition ends in a vowel (/bin/), or (b) reduced to a syllabic nasal and attached to a consonantal coda if it ends in an obstruent, including assimilation to homorganic stops (/mɪtn/, /ɔpm/), or (c) realised as a Knick on a preceding nasal (/ɪn̂/, /ʏm̂/). In any case, the results are perfectly normal phonological words, and the reduction of the articles can best be explained by means of the word-based phonotactic patterns that the contractions conform to. Similar processes are at work in the case of other contraction phenomena, such as the cliticization of definite articles after the conjunction /dat/ ‘that’ (/dat/ + /dɛɪ̯/ → /datɪ/ [ˈdaɾɪ̞], /dat/ + /dat/ → /datat/ [ˈdaɾat]) or the cliticization of demonstrative /dat/ ‘dem.n.sg’ after finite verb forms (/ɪs/ ‘be.3sg.pres’ + /dat/ → /ɪsːat/, /ʃas/ ‘shall.2sg.pres’ + /dat/ → /ʃasːat/). To sum up, the word-related phonological processes illustrated in this section show that the phonological word is indeed an important phonological unit, and even more so than in Standard German, as some morphophonological alternations cannot be explained sufficiently on the basis of syllable-related rules. However, it is also clear that the phonological word cannot be equated with the lexical word in all cases, since rules for the cliticization and contraction of certain function words imply an expansion of the phonological word beyond the boundaries of the lexical word.
2.5 Word-level suprasegmental: The Knick phoneme In addition to the segmental phenomena discussed so far, there is also a wordlevel suprasegmental phoneme in (North) Low German, which has been labelled “dragging tone” (German Schleifton), “overlength”, “accent 2”, or “tone 2”. This suprasegmental, a reflex of an apocopated or syncopated syllable in older forms, is found in lexical items such as /vît/ ‘willow’, which is phonetically identical to /vit/ ‘far’ in segmental terms, but suprasegmentally marked by at least a slightly different pitch contour and a longer segmental duration. This is reflected in the impressionistic label “Knick” (‘bend’), which is taken from several speakers’ description of the phenomenon.⁸ While it is commonly agreed that the proso-
8 For convenience, Knick is indicated by a circumflex (ˆ). Although this diacritic is identical to the IPA symbol denoting a falling contour, which would indeed be one possible interpretation of Knick, this usage is not meant to rule out other analyses.
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demic distinction in Low German dialects is phonologically similar to the tonal system in, among others, Limburgish and Ripuarian dialects (cf. Gussenhoven and Peters 2004; Peters 2006), the exact phonological interpretation of this feature is rather controversial. The proposed approaches to the phonological interpretation differ in (a) whether the longer segmental duration or the characteristic pitch contour is considered distinctive, (b) whether it is assumed to affect only vowels or also nasal consonants, and (c) whether the vowel system in general is thought of as organized in terms of quantitative or qualitative distinctions. The classic view, as introduced by Bremer (1927), regards the pitch contour as the phonemically distinctive feature. As vowel length in general is seen as phonemic in this interpretation, it results in a system with binary vowel quantity (“long” vs. “short”) and a tonal distinction between two tonal accents or tonemes (“push tone” vs. “dragging tone”, or “toneme 1” vs. “toneme 2”). A similar view is held by Jakobson (1962 [1931]: 235), Ternes (2001: 180, 2006), and Prehn (2007).⁹ In contrast, a majority of studies support an interpretation which is based on a ternary quantitative contrast, including Knick as a third “overlong” quantity instead of a tonal feature (cf. von Essen 1958: 110–112, 1964: 10–11; Ternes 1981; Auer 1991: 24–25; Chapman 1993). In yet another analysis, Kohler (1986, 2001) argues that the vowel system is mainly organized in terms of qualitative distinctions and thus reduces the ternary quantity to a binary system, in which vowels bearing a Knick are analysed as “long” and hence equivalent to the “overlong” or “dragging tone” vowels in previous analyses. I myself have proposed an analysis that combines a qualitatively organized vowel system (as presented in section 2.2) with a prosodemic distinction which includes both tonal and durational aspects (cf. Höder 2010 for details). This more neutral point of view is reflected in the terminology used (“prosodeme 1” vs. “prosodeme 2 [= Knick]”). In this analysis, which is also applied here, Knick even includes the phonetically long nasals in words like /kom̂/ ‘come-inf’, as they also exhibit the characteristic pitch contour found in prosodemically marked vowels. A similar approach to long nasals is proposed by Prehn (2010). Even von Essen’s (1958: 111) analysis can be considered parallel, as it interprets long nasals as equivalent to “overlong” vowels.
9 In a subsequent study, though, Prehn (2011) claims not to find significant tonal differences and hence argues for the durational contrast to be distinctive. However, as Prehn’s work is based on recent recordings of (elderly) speakers from different places within the North Low German area, her findings may also reflect interdialectal differences or a (recent) loss of the tonal distinction. Further research is needed to clarify this issue.
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As for the distribution of Knick, the most important rule states that Knick occurs exclusively in word-final syllables and is normally restricted to the stressed syllable: (17) /lŷt/ ‘people’ /bɪvîs/ [bɪ̞ˈvîːs] ‘prove-1sg.pres’ /klɪdôʃ/ [kʰlɪ̞ˈdôːʃ] ‘clothes, dress’
Its occurrence in syllables without (primary) stress is limited to compounds or pseudo-compounds, i.e. words whose (exceptional) phonological structure resembles compounds (regarding the distribution of nuclei, among other things) and which therefore could be analysed as consisting of two phonological words (cf. Raffelsiefen 2000): (18) /ˈʏnrˌɛ̂lf/ ‘Lower Elbe [part of the river]’ (< /ʏnr/ ‘under; lower’ + /ɛ̂lf/ ‘Elbe’) /ˈʃufˌlôt/ ‘drawer’ (< /ʃuf-/ ‘push-’ + /lôt/ ‘drawer, chest’) /ˈaːˌbɑ̂i̯t/ ‘work-1sg.pres’ (vs. /ˈaːˌbɑi̯t/ ‘work [noun]’) /ˈhaːˌbâːx/ ‘hostel, shelter’
Furthermore, Knick is subject to rather intricate phonotactic constraints on the segmental context. It is restricted to long monophthongs (/aː ɔː/), monophthongs with a long allophone (/i y u e ø o ɒ/), and diphthongs, and it can occur in open syllables as well as before fricatives, the stop /t/, or nasals: (19) /bâːx/ ‘recover [a ship]-1sg.pres’ vs. /baːx/ ‘mountain’ /vît/ ‘willow’ vs. /vit/ ‘far’ /lôt/ ‘drawer, chest’ vs. /lot/ ‘late’ /mêo̯t/ ‘fashion’ vs. /meo̯t/ ‘courage’
In addition, Knick can appear on any vowel if followed by (tautosyllabic) /l/: (20) /âl/ ‘all-pl’ vs. /al/ ‘already’
Finally, Knick can occur in syllable-final nasals, resulting in possible minimal triplets as its position within the syllable is distinctive in certain contexts: (21) /fɪn̂/ ‘find-inf’ vs. /fɪn/ ‘find-1sg.pres’ /min̂/ ‘mine-pl [weapons]’ vs. /mîn/ ‘mine [weapon]’ vs. /min/ ‘my-nom’
Thus, while Knick is attached to a specific phonetic segment within a syllable (the tone-bearing unit in a narrow sense) and its position within the syllable can vary, the scope of this suprasegmental feature is still the whole phonological word, i.e. the prosodemic contrast is only distinctive once per word. This is another indicator that the position of the word is the dominant phonological unit in Low
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German. Furthermore, as Knick usually coincides with stress, it can also be said to reinforce the culminative function of stress. Knick plays a minor role in the inflectional morphology (cf. also section 2.4.2). In addition to (and often in combination with) other affixes, it serves as a plural marker, an infinitive marker, and a person-number marker: (22) /dax/ ‘day’ vs. /dôx/ ‘day-pl’ (combined with vowel alternation) /rat/ ‘wheel’ vs. /rø̂t/ ‘wheel-pl’ (combined with vowel alternation) /kom̂/ ‘come-inf’ vs. /kôm/ ‘come-1sg.pres’ /left/ ‘live-3sg.pres’ vs. /lêft/ ‘live-pl.pres’
As most existing affixes in Low German are non-vocalic, i.e. they consist of coda consonants or consonantal nuclei, the use of a suprasegmental phoneme for inflectional purposes can be seen as part of a general tendency to avoid vocalic suffixes.¹⁰ The overall result is that inflected forms usually do not exhibit phonological structures that are different from those of uninflected words, which in turn results in an even more homogeneous structure of the phonological word. In summary, it can be said that the distribution of the Knick phoneme cannot be described or explained adequately without reference to the phonological word, and the occurrence of Knick can be interpreted as a coherence marker.
3 Areal perspective: North German, Scandinavian, and beyond The typological profile of Low German as a word language rather than a syllable language is, first of all, of descriptive value. Moreover, as it deals with a non-standardized, scarcely written variety, it provides a useful addition to the available descriptions of Germanic languages, in particular with respect to cross-linguistic studies. While non-standard varieties have generally been neglected by typologists in favor of more easily accessible standard languages, there is now a growing interest in dialectal data, and the importance of non-standard evidence for typological studies is increasingly acknowledged (cf. Auer 2004). This is evidently of particular relevance within the field of phonology and phonetics, as it is the non-standard varieties rather than the codified standards that are actually used by the speakers in everyday oral communication. On top of that, the word-language features of Low German, as outlined in section 2, are most likely not limited to the original Low German dialects, but probably apply to High German varieties spoken in Northern Germany as well.
10 The only exception is adjectival inflection, where we find a suffix /ɪ/ (with several functions).
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Low German has been in constant contact with High German throughout its existence, and speakers have been shifting to High German, which they acquired as an L2, since early modern times. The majority of the population eventually shifted to High German in the middle of the 20th century (with many of their descendants becoming monolingual in High German). As a result, the colloquial North High German variety is heavily influenced by Low German structures in all parts of the grammar and the lexicon. The organization of the vowel system in North High German, for example, clearly follows the Low German model and represents what I have labelled the “diasystematic intersection” of both systems (Höder 2011b). The analysis of the Low German features may thus stimulate further research into North High German. Another field for which the phonological features of Low German and its status as a word language are highly relevant is the study of the areal or contact-linguistic relations between the German-speaking area and its northern neighbors (cf. Höder 2011a). North Low German is located in a transitional zone between High German and Danish. The Danish-German border region has been a region of intensive bi- and multilingualism, language contact, and language shift from at least the early Middle Ages until today, with a high degree of contact-induced convergence between the languages involved (High German, Low German, Standard Danish, the regional Danish variety South Jutlandic, and North Frisian). Indeed, there are striking phonological similarities between Danish and Low German which may, at least in part, be due to language contact. Parallel word-language features include for instance (a) differentiated, highly stress-sensitive vowel systems (cf. the analysis in Grønnum 1998), (b) some form of word-medial obstruent voicing, (c) the existence of a word-level suprasegmental phoneme (Low German Knick, Danish stød). South Jutlandic, while being stød-less, even employs a prosodemic distinction that is very similar to the Low German Knick, although it is normally referred to as a tonal contrast (cf. Bjerrum 1948; Ringgaard 1973: 25; Ejskjær 2005: 1723). In a wider perspective, Low German also forms part of a historical contact zone that encompasses the larger part of Northern Europe. The North Germanic subfamily of the Germanic languages is relatively closely related to Low German, and the contact between Low German and Continental Scandinavian in particular has been very influential in the history of the Scandinavian languages (Braunmüller 2004, this volume). Intriguingly, again, there are typological similarities between the phonology of Low German and the Scandinavian languages that could well be the result of contact-induced convergence, among them the relatively large vowel inventories and the pitch accent systems of Norwegian and Swedish. Furthermore, both Low German and Continental Scandinavian belong to the so-called Circum-Baltic languages, a proposed linguistic area consisting
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of Germanic, Baltic, and Finnic languages, among others (for an overview cf. Koptjevskaja-Tamm and Wälchli 2001). Eliasson’s (2000) survey shows that these languages share some rather uncommon phonological features, including ones that are relevant to the distinction between word and syllable languages, such as large (and highly differentiated) vowel inventories and word-related systems of vowel and consonant quantity. So far, an explanation of these parallels is a desideratum. However, they too might be due to the intense contact within the Circum-Baltic area in historic and prehistoric times, including contact with Middle Low German. A more detailed knowledge of the phonology of its modern successor could provide more insight into the range and origin of this areal group.
4 Conclusion Low German indeed turns out to be quite a characteristic word language. On the whole, it seems to be even closer to the word language pole of the continuum between word and syllable languages than Standard German. It meets all the criteria summarized in Table 1, except for the fact that there is one long consonant, /sː/ (which, however, only occurs word-medially), and the observation that stress is only marginally distinctive. Its word-language features include (a) slightly more complex word-initial consonant clusters than in Standard German, (b) a fairly complex vowel system, which is more differentiated than the Standard German one, (c) a highly stress-sensitive system of syllable nuclei, (d) word-related phonological processes, particularly in relation to word-medial consonants, where in some cases a resegmentation of words is at work rather than resyllabification processes, and (e) a word-based suprasegmental distinction. The main difference between Low German and Standard German lies in the greater relevance of word coherence phenomena in Low German, while the marking of word boundaries is approximately equivalent in both languages. The findings are also relevant in a wider perspective. Some of the features found in Low German are also found in other non-standard varieties of (Northern) Germany as well as in neighboring languages, such as Danish (including South Jutlandic) and other Scandinavian and Circum-Baltic languages, which suggests an areal or contact-induced relation. This result underlines the importance of including dialectal or non-standard varieties in typological and cross-linguistic studies and may stimulate further research in this area as well.
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