West Frisian phonology
This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the West Frisian language.
Vowels
The vowel inventory of West Frisian is very rich.
Monophthongs
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i | iː | y | yː | u | uː | ||
| Close-mid | ɪ | eː | ø | øː | ə | o | oː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛː | ɔ | ɔː | ||||
| Open | a | aː | ||||||
Close and mid vowels
- /yː/ is infrequent.[4] It and the other long close rounded vowel /uː/ are absent from the dialect of Ljouwert.[5]
- The height of /ɪ/ has been variously described as close-mid [e][6] and mid [e̞].[7]
- Many scholars[8] transcribe /ø/ as /ø/, but de Haan (2010) transcribes it as /ʏ/.[9] Phonetically, this vowel has been variously described as close-mid front rounded [ø][10] and close-mid central slightly rounded [ɵ̜].[7]
- Although they pattern with monophthongs, the long close-mid vowels transcribed /eː, øː, oː/ are often realized as narrow closing diphthongs [eɪ, øʏ, oʊ].[11][12] One of the exceptions is /øː/ in the Hindeloopers dialect, which is realized as a long monophthong [øː].[5]
- /oː/ doesn't occur before /s/.[13]
- Although they pattern with monophthongs, the long open-mid vowels transcribed /ɛː, ɔː/ tend to be realized as centering diphthongs [ɛə, ɔə].[6][14]
- The Hindeloopers and Súdwesthoeksk dialects also feature open-mid front rounded vowels /œ, œː/, which are not a part of the standard language.[5][15]
Open vowels
- Many scholars[8] transcribe /a/ as /a/, but de Haan (2010) transcribes it as /ɑ/.[9] Its phonetic quality has been variously described as:
- /aː/ has been variously described as:
Diphthongs
| Starting point | Ending point | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | |||
| Close | unrounded | (jɪ jø jɛ) | iə | iu | |
| rounded | ui | yə uə (wa) | (wo) | ||
| Close-mid | unrounded | ɪə | |||
| rounded | oi oːi | øə oə | |||
| Open-mid | unrounded | ɛi | |||
| rounded | øy | ɔu | |||
| Open | unrounded | ai aːi | |||
- Booij (1989) argues that the rising diphthongs /jɪ, jɛ, wa, wo/ (he also lists the rare /jø/) are in fact glide-vowel sequences, not real diphthongs.[17] This view is supported by Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013) who transcribe them as /jɪ, jɛ, wa, wo/,[18] which is the convention used in this article.
- In Southwestern dialects, /wa, wo/ are monophthongized to short central [ɞ, ɵ].[19]
- Phonetically, the first element of /ɛi/ can be either [ɛ] or [æ].[20]
- Many scholars[21] transcribe /øy/ as /øy/, but Booij (1989) transcribes it as /ʌy/. According to Tiersma (1999), the first element of /øy/ is lower than the vowel /ø/[20] (i.e. more like [œ], similar to the traditional Standard Dutch pronunciation of /œy/).
- Some scholars[22] transcribe /ɔu/ as /ɔu/, yet others[23] transcribe it as /au/. Phonetically, the first element of this diphthong may be either of these, i.e. [ɔ] or, less often, [a].[24]
- Some varieties realize /ai/ as [ɔi].[2]
- Many speakers round the first element of /aːi/ to [ɔː].[20]
Breaking
Some falling diphthongs alternate with the rising ones:[2]
| Falling | Rising | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diphthong | Orthography | IPA | Translation | Diphthong | Orthography | IPA | Translation | |
| /iə/ | stien | /ˈstiən/ | 'stone' | /jɪ/ | stiennen | /ˈstjɪnən/ | 'stones' | |
| /ɪə/ | beam | /ˈbɪəm/ | 'tree' | /jɛ/ | beamke | /ˈbjɛmkə/ | 'little tree' | |
| /uə/ | foet | /ˈfuət/ | 'foot' | /wo/ | fuotten | /ˈfwotən/ | 'feet' | |
| /oə/ | doas | /ˈdoəs/ | 'box' | /wa/ | doaske | /ˈdwaskə/ | 'little box' | |
| /yə/ | sluere | /ˈslyərə/ | 'to meander' | /jø/ | slurkje | /ˈsljørkjə/ | 'to meander softly' | |
- The /yə/ - /jø/ alternation occurs only in the pair mentioned above.[2]
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
| voiced | b | d | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | x | h |
| voiced | v | z | ɣ | ||
| Trill | r | ||||
| Approximant | l | j | |||
- /m, p, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.[27]
- /t, d, s, z, r/ are apical alveolar [t̺, d̺, s̺, z̺. r̺].[29]
- /ŋ, k, x, ɣ/ are velar, whereas /ɪ/ is palatal.[33]
- The syllabic sonorants [m̩, n̩, ŋ̍, l̩, r̩] occur in the following circumstances:
- In the ending ⟨en⟩, which in careful speech is pronounced [ən]:[35]
- In the endings ⟨el⟩ and ⟨er⟩ (in careful speech: [əl] and [ər], respectively), which after consonants are realized as [l̩] and [r̩], respectively.[35]
- In some other cases. See Sipma (1913:36) for more information.
- /ɪ/ and the [ʋ] allophone of /v/ are the only sonorants which cannot be syllabic.
- The sequences /nj, tj, sj, zj/ coalesce to [ɲ, c, ɕ, ʑ].
- Glottal stop [ʔ] may precede word-initial vowels. In careful speech, it may also occur between unstressed and stressed vowel or diphthong.[36]
- Among fricatives, neither /x/ nor any of the voiced fricatives can occur word-initially.[37]
- /l/ is velarized [ɫ] in all environments except before the close front vowels /i, iː, y, yː/, where it is realized as clear [l].
Final devoicing
Word-final /b, d/ are realized as voiceless [p, t] in all dialects except Amelansk.[38] Note, however, that final /b/ is rare,[39] and that in loanwords from Standard Dutch, final /ɣ/ can also appear, and is also devoiced to [x].
References
- ↑ Sipma (1913), p. 8.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Booij (1989), p. 319.
- ↑ Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013), p. 509.
- ↑ Visser (1997), p. 19.
- 1 2 3 van der Veen (2001), p. 102.
- 1 2 Tiersma (1999), p. 10.
- 1 2 3 4 Sipma (1913), p. 10.
- 1 2 For instance Booij (1989), Tiersma (1999), van der Veen (2001), Keil (2003) and Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013).
- 1 2 3 de Haan (2010), p. 333.
- ↑ Tiersma (1999), p. 11.
- ↑ Visser (1997), pp. 22–23.
- ↑ Tiersma (1999), pp. 10–11.
- 1 2 Hoekstra (2001), p. 86.
- ↑ Visser (1997), p. 23.
- 1 2 Hoekstra (2001), p. 83.
- 1 2 Visser (1997), p. 14.
- ↑ Booij (1989), pp. 319–320.
- ↑ Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013), pp. 509–510.
- ↑ Hoekstra (2003:202), citing Hof (1933:14)
- 1 2 3 Tiersma (1999), p. 12.
- ↑ For instance Tiersma (1999), Keil (2003) and Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013).
- ↑ For instance Booij (1989), Hoekstra (2001) and Keil (2003).
- ↑ For instance Tiersma (1999) and Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013).
- ↑ Tiersma (1999), pp. 12, 36.
- ↑ Based on the consonant table in Sipma (1913:8). The allophones [ɲ, ɡ, β̞] are not included.
- ↑ Hoekstra (2001), p. 84.
- ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 8, 15–16.
- ↑ Keil (2003), p. 7.
- ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 14–16.
- 1 2 Keil (2003), p. 8.
- ↑ Tiersma (1999), pp. 28–29.
- ↑ Tiersma (1999), p. 29.
- ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 8, 15–17.
- ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 15, 17.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Sipma (1913), p. 36.
- ↑ Sipma (1913), p. 15.
- ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 16–17.
- ↑ van der Veen (2001), p. 104.
- ↑ Tiersma (1999), p. 21.
Bibliography
- Booij, Geert (1989), "On the representation of diphthongs in Frisian", Journal of Linguistics, 25: 319–332, JSTOR 4176008
- de Haan, Germen J. (2010), Hoekstra, Jarich; Visser, Willem; Jensma, Goffe, eds., Studies in West Frisian Grammar: Selected Papers by Germen J. de Haan, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, ISBN 978-90-272-5544-0
- Hoekstra, Jarich (2001), "12. Standard West Frisian", in Munske, Horst Haider; Århammar, Hans, Handbook of Frisian studies, Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag GmbH, pp. 83–98, ISBN 3-484-73048-X
- Hoekstra, Jarich (2003), "Frisian. Standardization in progress of a language in decay", Germanic Standardizations. Past to Present (PDF), 18, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 193–209, ISBN 978-90-272-1856-8
- Hoekstra, Jarich; Tiersma, Peter Meijes (2013) [First published 1994], "16 Frisian", in van der Auwera, Johan; König, Ekkehard, The Germanic Languages, Routledge, pp. 505–531, ISBN 0-415-05768-X
- Hof, Jan Jelles (1933), Friesche Dialectgeographie (PDF), The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff
- Keil, Benjamin (2003), Frisian phonology (PDF)
- Sipma, Pieter (1913), Phonology & grammar of modern West Frisian, London: Oxford University Press
- Tiersma, Peter Meijes (1999) [First published 1985 in Dordrecht by Foris Publications], Frisian Reference Grammar (2nd ed.), Ljouwert: Fryske Akademy, ISBN 90-6171-886-4
- van der Veen, Klaas F. (2001), "13. West Frisian Dialectology and Dialects", in Munske, Horst Haider; Århammar, Hans, Handbook of Frisian studies, Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag GmbH, pp. 98–116, ISBN 3-484-73048-X
- Visser, Willem (1997), The Syllable in Frisian (PDF), Leiden: Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics, ISBN 90-5569-030-9
Further reading
- Fokkema, Klaas (1961), "Consonantgroepen in de Zuidwesthoek van Friesland", in Heeroma, Klaas Hanzen; Fokkema, Klaas, Structuurgeografie, Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitg. Mij., pp. 16–26
- Heeringa, Wilbert (2005), "Dialect variation in and around Frisia: classification and relationships" (PDF), Us Wurk, tydskrift foar Frisistyk, 3–4: 125–167
- Tiersma, Peter Meijes (1983), "The nature of phonological representation: evidence from breaking in Frisian", Journal of Linguistics, 10: 59–78, JSTOR 4175665
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