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Kuzmenko Yu.SHORTENING of LONG ЯЗЫКОЗНАНИЕ UDC 811.113.4+81’3 Yury Kuzmenko Institute for Linguistic Studies. Russian Academy of Sciences SHORTENING OF LONG STRESSED VOWELS IN FRISIAN* For citation: Kuzmenko Yu. Shortening of long stressed vowels in Frisian. Scandinavian Philology, 2019, vol. 17, issue 1, pp. 5–21. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu21.2019.101 In contrast to the traditional treatment of Frisian vowel quantity as phonologically relevant, it is considered to be predictable and dependent on the type of contact (long vowel = open contact vs short vowel = close contact). The replacement of an open contact by a close one in Frisian started in the late 17th c. and has been going on until now. Most disyllabic words in Frisian as well as in the other Germanic languages con- sist of a root and a suffix. As a result of the change of the contact type (open > close) and, consequently, vowel shortening, the number of words with coinciding syllable and morpheme boundaries has increased. This is similar to the change that has taken place in English and Danish, but in Frisian it has some peculiarities, such as vowel shorten- ing in disyllabic words with suffixes and a new Frisian breaking (the development of short rising diphthongs in close contact words from long falling diphthongs in open contact words). These peculiarities distinguish Frisian from the other West Germanic languages but they are typical of the Jutlandic Danish dialects where the new breaking occurs in the same types of words. In this process, short rising diphthongs, the result of the Old Frisian and Old Scandinavian breaking, may have served as a model in the for- mation of the new short rising diphthongs in Frisian and Jutlandic Danish. In this con- text, this change may have been a consequence of language contact. The replacement of close contact by open contact in disyllabic words in the language of the younger Frisian generation can be accounted for by the influence of Dutch, Low- and High Ger- man (the Frisian youngsters even in the Netherlands not to mention Germany having * The research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant 17-04-00360-OGN / 19 2017–2019. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu21.2019.101 5 a better command in these languages than in Frisian). This development shows that the dominating process (open > close contact) in the Germanic languages, which could be caused by the effect of the self-adjusting language system ensuring a better segmenta- tion of the root morpheme in text, can be violated by a language contact. Keywords: Frisian, correlation of contact, prosodics, vowel shortening, new Frisian breaking. The present paper is a follow-up to my papers about the shortening of long consonants and long stressed vowels and the change of the syl- lable structure in the West Germanic languages and Danish [Кuz’men- ko 2017; 2018; 2019]. This time it will be about the change of the syllable structure and vowel shortening in Frisian. 1. INTERPRETATION OF VOWEL QUANTITY IN FRISIAN Traditionally the vowel quantity in Frisian is considered to be pho- nologically relevant. This interpretation is based on the data of instru- mental phonetics which show a clear difference in length between long and short vowels and on the possibility of a short vowel in monosyllabic CV-words [Fokkema, 1959, blz. 61; Cohen et al., 1959, blz. 108–109]. Fokkema does not give examples of such words but Visser, who wrote his PhD thesis on syllable in Frisian, describes them in detail. When he formulates a rule which he calls short vowel filter in Frisian permit- ting existence of only long vowels in CV-word, he mentions those few words which break the rule. These words are prepositions, pronouns and adverbs such as ho [hu] „how“, sa [sa] „so“, ta [ta] „to“‚ se [sə] „she“, do [du] „then“, jy [jə] „you“, wy [vi] „we“, hy „ h e”, my „me“ etc. [Visser, 1997, p. 173–175]. The number of such words in Frisian is small and judging by the Frisian twenty five — volume dictionary [Wurdboek, 1984–2011] all of them can have a stressed variant with long vowel. In this way these words in Frisian are not different from similar words with weak and strong variants in English1 [Johnes, 1957]. 1 The fact that Modern English is characterized by the correlation of contact is testified by the different syllable division. In open contact words the syllable is open, in close contact words the syllable boundary does not separate the postvocalic conso- nant from the preceding vowel. English phoneticians even claim that in close contact words the consonant completely belongs to the root syllable [cf. Wells, 1990; Johnes 1997, p. XIII]. 6 Скандинавская филология. 2019. Т. 17. Вып. 1 Following Fokkema the relevance of vowel quantity in Frisian is suggested by modern authors [Bussmann, 2004]. Although Fokkema determines the relevance of vowel quantity in Frisian he according to Trubetzkoy, who proposed the correlation of contact in the Germanic languages [Trubetzkoy, 1939, S. 196–198]2, ponders the possibility of correlation of contact in Frisian, with vowel length depending on the type of contact [Fokkema, 1959, blz. 60–61]. Though Fokkema tends to the relevance of vowel quantity he calls short vowels “covered” (Dutch gedeckt) and long vowels “uncovered” (ongedekt) [Fokkema, 1959, blz. 60], which indicates the connection between vowel quantity and syllabic structure in Frisian, cf. traditional English terminology checked vowels — free vowels. The short “covered” (checked) vowels are vowels in a closed syllable, the long “uncovered” (free) vowels are vowels in an open syllable. Tröster, who described the disappearing East Frisian vernacular of Saterland also suggests vowel quantity as a distinctive feature [Tröster, 1996, S. 181–185], but he admits that in the words with the short high vowels, that is with the originally long vowels which have been shortened cf. /knipə/, OFr. knîpa „pinch“ or /brükə/, OFr. brûka „use“, the perception of vowel shortness can be provided by the close contact [Tröster, 1996, S. 190]. The main problem of segmental prosodics of the Frisian as well as the segmental prosodics of the other modern West Germanic languages is the syllabification in disyllabic words with short vowels, cf. Fr. bidde /bɪdə/ „to pray“, dolle /dolə/ „to dig“, bigge /bɪgə/ „pig“, finne /fɪnə/ „pas- turage“, frette /frεtə/ „to eat (about animals)“, gripe /gripə/ „to catch“, hoanne /hwanə/ „cock“, hjitte /hjɪtə/ „to be named“, libben /lɪbən/ „life“, sekken /sekə/ „sacks“, stiennen /stjɪnən/ „stones“ etc. Examining the syl- lable division in Frisian Visser, according to the postulates of genera- tive phonology, proposes two levels of syllabification. On the first level (initial syllabification) all Frisian syllables are closed regardless of vowel quantity (CV(:)C-V). cf. e. g. sekken (sεk-)(ən) „sacks“, kranen (kra:n-) (ən) „stop-cocks“, tsjillen (tsjɪl-)(ən) „wheels“, but on the surface level every syllable is converted into an open one (CV-CV), cf. sekken (sε-) (kən), kranen (kra:-)(nən), tsjillen (tsjɪ-)(lən) and every morpheme-fi- 2 According to Trubetzkoy the correlation of contact (Silbenschnitt, Anschluss) is connected with the type of contact (close or open) of a vocalic syllable nucleus with the following consonant. The vowel length is consequently phonologically not relevant and depends on the type of contact [Trubetzkoy, 1939, S. 197] Скандинавская филология. 2019. Т. 17. Вып. 1 7 nal consonant turns to syllable initial one [Visser, 1997, p. 278]. How- ever, neither the generalization of closed syllables on the deep level nor the opened syllables on the surface level reflects the real syllabification in Frisian. The treatment of the syllables in words with short vowels as closed in Frisian (cf. [Sipma, 1913]) indicates that the syllable division in Frisian is not different from the syllable division in the other West Germanic languages (closed syllable after a short vowel vs. open syllable after a long vowel). Thus, the correlation of syllable contact can be pro- posed also for Frisian. As main phonetic correlates of this correlation can be considered the distribution of vowel intencity [Spiekermann, 2000; 2004] and vowel quantity. The crucial point in the correlation of contact is however the syllabification. The vowel shortening in this case indicates the change of the contact type (open > close). If we use the traditional pattern of syllable structure with syllable in- itial, nucleus and coda we can propose two types of syllables in Frisian: Initial nucleus coda initial of nucleus the 2nd syll. Position N 1 2 3 / 4 5 open contact C V V / C V d o o / g ə doge „to be good“ closed contact C V C / 0 V d o g / 0 ə dogge „bulldog“ Metrically CVV- and CVC- are equal, which is reflected in different syllabification and in similar modern West Germanic reduction of un- stressed vowels, which affects the words CVV-CV and CVC-V in simi- lar way. The peculiarity of the contact correlation in the Germanic lan- guages is that as a rule the Germanic disyllabic words consist of a root (stressed syllable) and unstressed suffix. In open contact words the morpheme-final consonant is separated by the syllable boundary from the preceding vowel (the situation which is characteristic of all phone- mic language). But in the close contact words, the syllable boundary does not separate the postvocalic morpheme-final consonant from the preceding vowel. This situation is similar with the situation in the syl- labic languages, where a morpheme always coincides with the syllable (as e.g. in Chinese, Vietnamese etc.). By the ratio of syllabic and mor- phological boundaries the Germanic languages with the correlation of 8 Скандинавская филология. 2019. Т. 17. Вып. 1 contact can be placed between phonemic languages and syllabic ones [Kuz’menko, 1991].
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