Netherlandic sound shift
In historical linguistics the Netherlandic sound shift, Old Low Frankish sound shift or Old Dutch sound shift[1] refers to a number of phonological development (sound change) that took place in northwestern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum. It probably took place in the 8th century and was almost complete before the earliest written records in Dutch were produced. The resulting language, Old Dutch, can be contrasted with the other continental West Germanic languages, principally Old Frisian, Old English, Old Saxon and Old High German, which remained unaffected by the sound change.[2]
General description[edit]
The Netherlandic shift altered a number of consonants in what would then become the Dutch dialects – and thus also in modern Standard Dutch and Afrikaans. The changes form a phonological demarcation between Netherlandic dialects and the other West Germanic dialects and is particularly useful for differentiating between the westernmost Saxon dialects and easternmost Dutch dialects, which are otherwise hard to divide phonologically on the absence of the High German consonant shift alone.[3]
Overview table[edit]
| Germanic > Dutch | Examples in Dutch | Unshifted cognates | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| /ft/ > /cht/ (IPA: [ft] > [xt]) |
sticht lucht oplichten |
German: stiften German: Luft , Frisian: loft English: to lift | |
| /ol/ or /al/ + /d/ or /t/ > /ou/ or /au/ (IPA: [ɔlt] / [ɔld] > [ɔut]) |
koud houden |
German: kalt, Frisian: kâld, English: cold German: halten, Frisian: hâlden, English: to hold |
|
| Plural/Singular differentiation with rounded vowels | weg, wegen (IPA: [ʋɛx], [ʋeːɣən]) dag, dagen (IPA: [dɑx], [daːɣən]) |
German: Weg, Wege, English: way, ways (IPA: [veːk], [veːɡə] & [weɪ], [weɪz]) German: Tag, Tage, English: day, days (IPA: [taːk], [taːɡə] & [deɪ], [deɪz]) |
IPA added as pronunciation is not self evident from spelling. |
| /uː/ > /yː/ | huid | German: Haut, Frisian: hûd, English: hide | Reconstructed */u:/ present in Germanic has shifted in all modern West-Germanic languages |
References[edit]
This article "Netherlandic sound shift" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
