DOCSLIB.ORG

Preaspiration in Shetland Norn

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Preaspiration in Shetland Norn Journal of Language Contact 6 (2013) 48–72 brill.com/jlc Preaspiration in Shetland Norn Remco Knooihuizen Rijksuniversiteit Groningen [email protected] Abstract The Shetland dialect of Scots does not contain preaspiration, a phonetic areal feature that is otherwise prevalent in languages around the North Atlantic Ocean. While it is understood that Shetland’s pre-language shift Scandinavian variety, Norn, did contain preaspiration, an analysis of phonetic transcriptions from Jakob Jakobsen’s An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland, collected in the 1890s, shows a more complicated picture: preaspiration occurs in only 11% of relevant vowel-stop sequences, but in 92% of relevant sonorant-stop and sonorant- fricative sequences. This article provides a contact-based explanation of the gradual disappearance of preaspiration from Shetland. The proposed trajectory of change is made up of a series of language and dialect contact-induced sub-changes and reflects the influence of Norn as well as of successive waves of immigration from the Scottish mainland. In the first stage, during language shift, preaspiration in vowel-stop sequences disappeared as it (co-)signaled a phonemic contrast in Norn not neces- sary for Scots, but (non-phonemic) preaspiration in sonorant-stop/fricative sequences was retained. In a later stage, dialect contact after renewed immigration from the Scottish mainland caused voiceless stops to be unaspirated, removing the phonetic basis for preaspiration also in the remaining contexts. The study highlights the different susceptibility of phonetic and phonemic features in contact- induced change and calls for further integration of second-language acquisition study and varia- tionist sociolinguistics into historical linguistics. Keywords preaspiration; sonorant devoicing; Shetland Norn; historical linguistics; language contact 1. Introduction Many linguistic studies aim to explain why obscure features occur in a lan- guage, or why very common features are absent from a language. This study is * This paper would not have been possible without the contributions to data coding made by Anne-Mette Hermans. I have also benefited greatly from discussions with Warren Maguire, Miriam Meyerhoff, and Pieter Muysken on Shetland dialectology and contact linguistics. Conference audiences in Leiden and Groningen have given constructive feedback which has © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI 10.1163/19552629-006001012 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 03:17:06AM via free access <UN> R. Knooihuizen / Journal of Language Contact 6 (2013) 48–72 49 somewhat of an anomaly in that it focuses on the absence from a language of a relatively uncommon feature. The paper has its roots in an overheard com- ment during the coffee break at a conference, where one of the attendees remarked to another that it was surprising there is no preaspiration in Shetland, where preaspiration would be expected. There was no quick answer at the cof- fee table, and as will be shown in this paper, there is no quick answer at all. Preaspiration in Shetland is complicated, but a discussion of the feature does allow us to address some interesting issues in the study of language contact, historical linguistics and historical sociolinguistics. 1.1. Shetland’s Linguistic History Shetland is an archipelago in the North Atlantic, some 200 kilometres North of Scotland, to which it has belonged politically since 1469. The islands had previously been a (Dano-)Norwegian colony since they were settled from Norway in the 8th century. When Shetland became Scottish in 1469, the main language of the islands was Norn, a West Scandinavian language closely related to Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian. From the late 16th century, Scottish linguistic influence became greater in the islands, among other things through a mass immigra- tion from the Scottish Lowlands (Donaldson, 1983). The integration of these migrants (Knooihuizen, 2008b) was one of the main triggers of a rapid lan- guage shift from Norn to Scots.1 The development of Shetland Scots is a com- plicated story that needs to account for influences from both Scottish immigrant dialects and Norn; Trudgill’s (2004) model of new-dialect forma- tion appears to be able to give an adequate explanation (Millar, 2008; Knooihuizen, 2009; see Millar, 2010, for a parallel development in neigh- bouring Orkney). There are no clear and reliable sources of Norn as a living language much beyond the beginning of the 18th century (Barnes, 1998: 26; Knooihuizen, 2008a). helped improve this paper. I am also indebted to Chris McCully and to two anonymous review- ers for the Journal of Language Contact for their comments on an earlier version of the paper. For all the shortcomings this paper may have, it would have been all the worse without their suggestions. 1 The spoken dialect on hetlandS clearly has its roots in Older Scots (van Leyden, 2004: 16) but there has been influence from English on Scots writing in Shetland from an early date. Only later did this influence spread to the spoken language as well, first as a form of bidialectism, and later also influencing Shetlanders’ native dialect (Smith and Durham, 2011; 2012). For reasons of consistency, the Shetland dialect will be referred to here as a form of Scots, but this should not be seen to indicate Scots as an entity completely separate and independent from (other) varieties of English. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 03:17:06AM via free access <UN> 50 R. Knooihuizen / Journal of Language Contact 6 (2013) 48–72 1.2. Preaspiration in Shetland That Shetland can be an interesting laboratory for language contact and his- torical (socio-)linguistics may be clear from this brief sketch of the islands’ linguistic history; what role the absence of preaspriation plays in this, is no doubt somewhat more obscure. Preaspiration is often described as an areal feature of Northwestern Europe, as it occurs in language spoken around the North Atlantic Ocean (Hansson, 2001). This makes that it is in fact thelack of preaspiration in Shetland, not the occurrence of the feature elsewhere, that needs to be explained. Hansson (2001: 158–159) only makes a brief mention of Shetland in his account of preaspiration, but his contribution highlights a range of important questions. I cite it here in its entirety: Preaspiration proper is found in all dialects of the Insular Scandinavian languages (Icelandic and Faroese). There is also reason to believe that it existed in Shetland Norn, the extinct language once spoken on the Shetland Islands, judging from transcriptions in Jakobsen (1921). It should be emphasized, however, that Jakobsen is not describing Norn as such, but the etymologically Norse vocabulary of the 19th century local dialect of Scots English. Since it is unlikely that these words had an entirely unique phonetic character, preaspiration (including sonorant devoicing) must have been a general feature of 19th century Shetland English. The crucial question is then whether this was in fact a direct carryover from Norn, or simply ‘imported’ to the islands as a feature of Scots English itself. (Many Scots dialects have preaspiration as a Gaelic substratum feature.) Which explanation is more plausible remains a matter of further investigation. In this paper, I aim to chart how preaspiration was constrained in Shetland Norn, as the language was recorded in Jakobsen’s transcriptions of Shetland Scots. This allows us to discover where this preaspiration came from — Shetland Norn, or Scottish Gaelic — and why it disappeared, as noted at the coffee table. I will also briefly touch upon a possible ‘unique phonetic character’ of the Norn words in Shetland Scots, and discuss the implications of historical linguistic research on substratum data. I begin by outlining some of the practical and theoretical considerations and assumptions made in this study (§2). I give a brief introduction to preaspi- ration, explain the theory of language contact assumed in this paper, and make some preliminary remarks about the reliability of substratum data. I then give a more detailed account of the constraints on preaspiration in a range of relevant languages (§3). The study of preaspiration in Shetland Norn is presented in §4, followed by a discussion of the implications of the results (§5). A brief conclusion (§6) addresses the issues from Hansson’s research program cited above. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 03:17:06AM via free access <UN> R. Knooihuizen / Journal of Language Contact 6 (2013) 48–72 51 2. Practical and Theoretical Considerations 2.1. Preaspiration The term ‘preaspiration’ is often used as an umbrella term for two phenomena that, following Hansson (2001: 157), will be referred to in this paper as ‘stop preaspiration’ and ‘sonorant devoicing’. Stop preaspiration involves a period of voicelessness typically before a voiceless stop; although the exact realisation varies, the canonical transcription is [hp ht hk]. In sonorant devoicing, a sonorant becomes voiceless when followed by a voiceless stop. Both stop preaspiration and sonorant devoicing are cases of regressive voicing assimila- tion, where the voicelessness of the stop spreads to the preceding vowel (for stop preaspiration, resulting in [h]) or sonorant. Despite this similarity, however, the occurrence of and constraints on stop preaspiration and sonorant devoicing do not have to run in parallel. Preaspiration is cross-linguistically an extremely rare feature. Helgason (2002: 43–104) and Silverman (2003) give extensive
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Norse Element in the Orkney Dialect Donna Heddle
    The Norse element in the Orkney dialect Donna Heddle 1. Introduction The Orkney and Shetland Islands, along with Caithness on the Scottish mainland, are identified primarily in terms of their Norse cultural heritage. Linguistically, in particular, such a focus is an imperative for maintaining cultural identity in the Northern Isles. This paper will focus on placing the rise and fall of Orkney Norn in its geographical, social, and historical context and will attempt to examine the remnants of the Norn substrate in the modern dialect. Cultural affiliation and conflict is what ultimately drives most issues of identity politics in the modern world. Nowhere are these issues more overtly stated than in language politics. We cannot study language in isolation; we must look at context and acculturation. An interdisciplinary study of language in context is fundamental to the understanding of cultural identity. This politicising of language involves issues of cultural inheritance: acculturation is therefore central to our understanding of identity, its internal diversity, and the porousness or otherwise of a language or language variant‘s cultural borders with its linguistic neighbours. Although elements within Lowland Scotland postulated a Germanic origin myth for itself in the nineteenth century, Highlands and Islands Scottish cultural identity has traditionally allied itself to the Celtic origin myth. This is diametrically opposed to the cultural heritage of Scotland‘s most northerly island communities. 2. History For almost a thousand years the language of the Orkney Islands was a variant of Norse known as Norroena or Norn. The distinctive and culturally unique qualities of the Orkney dialect spoken in the islands today derive from this West Norse based sister language of Faroese, which Hansen, Jacobsen and Weyhe note also developed from Norse brought in by settlers in the ninth century and from early Icelandic (2003: 157).
    [Show full text]
  • High Vowel Fricativization As an Areal Feature of the Northern Cameroon Grassfields
    High vowel fricativization as an areal feature of the northern Cameroon Grassfields Matthew Faytak WOCAL 8, | August 23, 2015 Overview High vowel fricativization is an areal or contact feature of the northern Grassfields, which carries implications for Niger-Congo reconstructions 1. What is (not) a fricativized vowel? 2. Where are they (not)? 3. Why is this interesting? Overview High vowel fricativization is an areal or contact feature of the northern Grassfields, which carries implications for Niger-Congo reconstructions 1. What is (not) a fricativized vowel? 2. Where are they (not)? 3. Why is this interesting? Fricative vowels Vowels with a fricative-like supralaryngeal constriction, which may or may not consistently result in audible fricative noise Not intended to encompass: • Devoiced or voiceless vowels Smith (2003) • Pre-/post-aspirated vowels Helgason (2002) Mortensen (2012) • Articulatory overlap at high speech rate • Wall noise sources in high vowels Shadle (1990) Prior mention Vowels that do fit one or both of the given definitions: • Apical vowels in Chinese Lee (2005) Feng (2007) Lee-Kim (2014) • Viby-i, G¨oteborges-i, etc. in Swedish Holmberg (1976) Engstrand et al. (2000) Sch¨otzet al. (2011) • Fricative vowels in Bantoid Medjo Mv´e(1997) Connell (2007) Articulatory evidence of constriction Olson and Meynadier (2015) Articulatory evidence of constriction z v " " High vowel fricativization (HVF) Fricative vowels arise from normal high vowels /i u/, often in tandem with raising of the next-lowest vowels Faytak (2014) i u e o i
    [Show full text]
  • Norn Elements in the Shetland Dialect
    Hugvísindadeild Norn elements in the Shetland dialect A Historical and Linguistic Review B.A. Essay Auður Dagný Jónsdóttir September, 2013 University of Iceland Faculty of Humanities Department of English Norn elements in the Shetland dialect A Historical and Linguistic Review B.A. Essay Auður Dagný Jónsdóttir Kt.: 270172-5129 Supervisors: Þórhallur Eyþórsson and Pétur Knútsson September, 2013 2 Abstract The languages spoken in Shetland for the last twelve hundred years have ranged from Pictish, Norn to Shetland Scots. The Norn language started to form after the settlements of the Norwegian Vikings in Shetland. When the islands came under the British Crown, Norn was no longer the official language and slowly declined. One of the main reasons the Norn vernacular lived as long as it did, must have been the distance from the mainland of Scotland. Norn was last heard as a mother tongue in the 19th century even though it generally ceased to be spoken in people’s daily life in the 18th century. Some of the elements of Norn, mainly lexis, have been preserved in the Shetland dialect today. Phonetic feature have also been preserved, for example is the consonant’s duration in the Shetland dialect closer to the Norwegian language compared to Scottish Standard English. Recent researches indicate that there is dialectal loss among young adults in Lerwick, where fifty percent of them use only part of the Shetland dialect while the rest speaks Scottish Standard English. 3 Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 2. The origin of Norn ................................................................................................................. 6 3. The heyday of Norn ............................................................................................................... 7 4. King James III and the Reformation ..................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Complexity As L2-Difficulty : Implications for Syntactic Change
    Erschienen in: Theoretical Linguistics ; 45 (2019), 3-4. - S. 183-209 https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/tl-2019-0012 Theoretical Linguistics 2019; 45(3-4): 183–209 George Walkden* and Anne Breitbarth Complexity as L2-difficulty: Implications for syntactic change https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2019-0012 Abstract: Recent work has cast doubt on the idea that all languages are equally complex; however, the notion of syntactic complexity remains underexplored. Taking complexity to equate to difficulty of acquisition for late L2 acquirers, we propose an operationalization of syntactic complexity in terms of uninterpret- able features. Trudgill’s sociolinguistic typology predicts that sociohistorical situations involving substantial late L2 acquisition should be conducive to simplification, i.e. loss of such features. We sketch a programme for investigat- ing this prediction. In particular, we suggest that the loss of bipartite negation in the history of Low German and other languages indicates that it may be on the right track. Keywords: sociolinguistic typology, syntactic change, L2 acquisition, simplification, Interpretability Hypothesis 1 Context and big picture 1.1 Typology, complexity, and language change The traditional notion that all languages are equally complex, as expressed in Hockett (1958), has recently come under attack from a number of quarters. Notably, in his seminal work Sociolinguistic Typology, Trudgill (2011) has sug- gested that different types of sociolinguistic situation lead to differential sim- plification and complexification: for instance, long-term co-territorial language contact is predicted to lead to additive complexification, whereas short-term contact involving extensive adult second-language (L2) use is predicted to lead to simplification.
    [Show full text]
  • Distinctive Semantic Fields in the Orkney and Shetland Dialects, and Their Use in the Local Literature‘
    Distinctive semantic fields in the Orkney and Shet- land dialects, and their use in the local literature J. Derrick McClure The various dialects of Orkney differ from each other; so too, perhaps to an even greater extent, do those of Shetland; and the sets of dialects found in the two island groups show common features which mark them off from each other; yet despite this internal diversity it can be stated as a fact that Insular Scots, as the two sets are styled collectively in the introduction to the Scottish National Dictionary, is the most distinctive of all forms of Scots: in phonology, grammar and above all vocabulary (for discussion see Millar 2007, especially Chapter 4). Some evidence of the extraordinary size of the Orkney-Shetland word list is provided by the well-known fact that when the Concise Scots Dictionary was being prepared, the biggest single section of the material from the Scottish National Dictionary omitted from the smaller work was a huge part of the Orkney-Shetland vocabulary. According to the Introduction of the CSD, ‗material from these areas [Shetland, Orkney and Caithness] which belongs not to Scots but to Norn‘ has been omitted. This is unmistakeable question-begging, for notwithstanding their Norn derivation the words thus defined must have been sufficiently naturalised into the Scots dialects of the islands to appear in Scots texts – otherwise they would not have been included in the SND. In this essay I will not examine, except incidentally, the derivation of the distinctive words in the Insular Scots vocabulary
    [Show full text]
  • ML 4080 the Seal Woman in Its Irish and International Context
    Mar Gur Dream Sí Iad Atá Ag Mairiúint Fén Bhfarraige: ML 4080 the Seal Woman in Its Irish and International Context The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Darwin, Gregory R. 2019. Mar Gur Dream Sí Iad Atá Ag Mairiúint Fén Bhfarraige: ML 4080 the Seal Woman in Its Irish and International Context. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42029623 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Mar gur dream Sí iad atá ag mairiúint fén bhfarraige: ML 4080 The Seal Woman in its Irish and International Context A dissertation presented by Gregory Dar!in to The Department of Celti# Literatures and Languages in partial fulfillment of the re%$irements for the degree of octor of Philosophy in the subje#t of Celti# Languages and Literatures (arvard University Cambridge+ Massa#husetts April 2019 / 2019 Gregory Darwin All rights reserved iii issertation Advisor: Professor Joseph Falaky Nagy Gregory Dar!in Mar gur dream Sí iad atá ag mairiúint fén bhfarraige: ML 4080 The Seal Woman in its Irish and International Context4 Abstract This dissertation is a study of the migratory supernatural legend ML 4080 “The Mermaid Legend” The story is first attested at the end of the eighteenth century+ and hundreds of versions of the legend have been colle#ted throughout the nineteenth and t!entieth centuries in Ireland, S#otland, the Isle of Man, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, S!eden, and Denmark.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Language in Shetland
    Language in Shetland We don’t know much about Pre-300AD the people of Shetland or Before the Picts The history of their language. Pictish people carve symbols 300AD-800AD language in into stone and speak a ‘Celtic’ Picts language. Shetland Vikings occupy the isles and introduce ‘Norn’. They carve S1-3 800AD-1500AD symbols called ‘runes’ into Vikings stone. The Picts and their language are then wiped out by Vikings. Scotland rule gradually influences life on the islands. The Scottish language 1500AD onwards eventually becomes the Scots prominent language. The dialect Shetlanders Today speak with today contains Us! Scottish and Norn words. 2 THE PICTS Ogham alphabet Some carvings are part of an The Picts spoke a Celtic The Picts lived in mainland alphabet called ‘ogham’. Ogham language, originating from Scotland from around the 6th represents the spoken language of Ireland. Picts may have to the 9th Century, possibly the Picts, by using a ‘stem’ with travelled from Ireland, earlier. Indications of a shorter lines across it or on either Scotland or further afield burial at Sumburgh suggest side of it. to settle on Shetland. that Picts had probably settled in Shetland by There are seven ogham ogham.celt.dias.ie 300AD. inscriptions from Shetland Picts in Shetland spoke one of (including St Ninian’s Isle, The side, number and angle of the the ‘strands’ of the Celtic Cunningsburgh and Bressay) short lines to the stem indicates the language. Picts also carved symbols onto and one from a peat bog in intended sound. Lunnasting. stone. These symbols have been found throughout These symbol stones may Scotland—common symbols have been grave markers, or This inscribed sandstone was dug they may have indicated up from the area of the ancient must have been understood by gathering points.
    [Show full text]
  • The Diachronic Emergence of Retroflex Segments in Three Languages* 1
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Hochschulschriftenserver - Universität Frankfurt am Main The diachronic emergence of retroflex segments in three languages* Silke Hamann ZAS (Centre for General Linguistics), Berlin [email protected] The present study shows that though retroflex segments can be considered articulatorily marked, there are perceptual reasons why languages introduce this class into their phoneme inventory. This observation is illustrated with the diachronic developments of retroflexes in Norwegian (North- Germanic), Nyawaygi (Australian) and Minto-Nenana (Athapaskan). The developments in these three languages are modelled in a perceptually oriented phonological theory, since traditional articulatorily-based features cannot deal with such processes. 1 Introduction Cross-linguistically, retroflexes occur relatively infrequently. From the 317 languages of the UPSI database (Maddieson 1984, 1986), only 8.5 % have a voiceless retroflex stop [ˇ], 7.3 % a voiced stop [Í], 5.3 % a voiceless retroflex fricative [ß], 0.9 % a voiced fricative [¸], and 5.9 % a retroflex nasal [˜]. Compared to other segmental classes that are considered infrequent, such as a palatal nasal [¯], which occurs in 33.7 % of the UPSID languages, and the uvular stop [q], which occurs in 14.8 % of the languages, the percentages for retroflexes are strikingly low. Furthermore, typically only large segment inventories have a retroflex class, i.e. at least another coronal segment (apical or laminal) is present, as in Sanskrit, Hindi, Norwegian, Swedish, and numerous Australian Aboriginal languages. Maddieson’s (1984) database includes only one exception to this general tendency, namely the Dravidian language Kota, which has a retroflex as its only coronal fricative.
    [Show full text]
  • Page 1 Openlearnworks Unit 4: Dialect Diversity Bbyy Bbruuccee
    OpenLearn Works Unit 4: Dialect diversity by Bruce Eunson Copyright © 2018 The Open University 2 of 23 http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/view.php?id=2705 Tuesday 7 January 2020 Contents Introduction 4 4. Introductory handsel 4 4.1 The Scots dialect of the Shetland Isles 7 4.2 Dialects of Scots in today’s Scotland 9 4.3 A brief history of the Shetland dialect 12 4.4 Dialect diversity and bilingualism 15 4.5 The 2011 Census 19 Further research 22 References 23 Acknowledgements 23 3 of 23 http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/view.php?id=2705 Tuesday 7 January 2020 Introduction Introduction In this unit you will learn about dialect diversity within Scots language. Like many languages, Scots is spoken and written in a variety of regional dialects. This unit will introduce you to these dialects and discuss some of the differences that appear between them. The predominance, and history of, the dialects of Scots language are particularly important when studying and understanding Scots due to the fact that the language is presently without an acknowledged written standard. Whilst there are differences between the regional dialects, they are also tied together by common features and similarities. Important details to take notes on throughout this unit: ● The number of Scots language dialects commonly recognised as being used in Scotland today ● The present state of Scots language ● The regard which regional speakers of Scots have for “their” dialect ● The influence of Norn (a North Germanic language belonging to the same group as Norwegian) on Scots language and the different dialects today ● The census of Scotland in March 2011, which asked for the first time in its history whether people could speak, read, write or understand Scots.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Introduction1 Geoffrey Haig and Geoffrey Khan
    1. Introduction1 Geoffrey Haig and Geoffrey Khan 1. Aims and scope of the volume This volume contains a series of descriptions of around 20 languages (or language groups), spoken across a region that includes most of eastern Turkey, western Iran and northern Iraq (see Fig. 1 for the locations), together with overview articles of sub-regions, and an appendix with selected lexical items from these languages. The region that we refer to here loosely as “Western Asia” is not clearly demar- cated, either politically or topographically, and requires a few words of explana- tion. Essentially it is linked to an ancient cultural core, namely the northern part of Mesopotamia, the upper catchment regions of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The book’s coverage goes beyond Mesopotamia in the narrower sense to include the surrounding mountainous regions of the Zagros in the southeast, and the elevated regions northwards and eastwards across the Anatolian plateau into the outliers of the Caucasus. These areas were all involved, at least economically and stra- tegically, in the succession of empires that arose in and around ancient Mesopo- tamia, beginning with the Sumerians in the third millennium BCE and continuing down to the Ottoman Empire into the dawn of the twentieth century. The sense of a common Kulturraum, while difficult to delineate precisely, is reflected by the growing recognition of linguistic parallels shared among the region’s languages, some of which we take up below. We have further divided the region into five sub-areas, each of which is treated in a section of the volume, with its own overview chapter.
    [Show full text]
  • Areal Features and Linguistic Reconstruction in Africa
    Areal features Hyman et al. Areal features and linguistic reconstruction in Introduction Africa Methodology The ALFA Project Tone database Larry M. Hyman1, Peter S. E. Jenks, Geoffrey Bacon, Nicolas Results 2 Tone Baier, Emily Clem , Matthew Faytak, Spencer Lamoureux, Vowel systems Florian Lionnet, John Merrill, Nicholas Rolle, and Hannah Sande3 Conclusion References [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] University of California, Berkeley 8th World Congress of African Linguistics Workshop 3: Areal Phenomena in Northern Sub-Saharan Africa 23 August 2015 Is Africa a linguistic area? Areal features Some scholars have claimed that Africa as a whole can be Hyman et al. considered a linguistic area Introduction Heine and Leyew (2008): 11 \African" linguistic properties Methodology Creissels et al. (2008): Africa forms a linguistic area based The ALFA Project on morphosyntactic data Tone database Results Others reject the idea of Africa as a single linguistic area, Tone but identify smaller linguistic areas on the continent Vowel systems Conclusion G¨uldemann(2008): The \Macro-Sudan Belt" is a References linguistic area Clements and Rialland (2008): Africa can be divided into 6 phonological areas Creissels (2015): West Africa is a linguistic area based on morphosyntactic tone and other features. More detailed study of the linguistic geography of Africa is needed in order to identify both macro- and micro-areas (Heine and Nurse, 2008) Goals of this talk Areal features Hyman et al. Introduction Based on data from 243 tone systems and 74 vowel Methodology systems, we argue that Africa as a whole does not form a The ALFA Project unified linguistic area Tone database Results Likewise, these data do not provide evidence for the Tone Vowel systems Macro-Sudan Belt as a unified phonological area Conclusion Instead, we find evidence for smaller linguistic micro-areas References South of Lake Chad The Nigeria/Cameroon border The Ghana/Togo/Burkina Faso cluster The Kru/Mande Zone Overview Areal features Hyman et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Areal Features of English in Ireland (Hickey 2012)
    ‘Areal features of English in Ireland’, in: Raymond Hickey (ed.) 2012. Areal Features of the Anglophone World. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton, pp. 79-107. Areal features of English in Ireland Raymond Hickey University of Duisburg and Essen 1. Introduction The notion of linguistic area (from German Sprachbund, lit. ‘language federation’) is one which is often invoked when dealing with languages which share features and are found in a geographically contiguous area. Some of these areas have gained general acceptance in linguistic literature as the evidence for them is quite convincing. These include the Pacific North-West, Meso-America, the Balkans, the Baltic area, Arnhem Land in Northern Australia, Southern India (with Indic / Dravidian languages) to mention just some of the better known instances. Scholars concerned with linguistic areas, vary considerably in their approach and following Campbell (1998: 300) one can distinguish at least two basic orientations in the field: 1) circumstantianlist where authors are content with listing the various features of a putative area and 2) historicist where authors attempt to show that the shared features diffused historically through the languages of an area. The second approach is necessary to avoid the pitfall of raising features which may have arisen by chance to the level of defining characteristics of an area. Furthermore, it is essential to accord relative weight to features under consideration. Those which are typologically unspectacular cannot be appealed to when defining an area. For instance any set of languages or varieties which show a palatalisation of velars – and just that – could hardly be regarded as forming a linguistic area as this is a very general feature.
    [Show full text]