Voicing distinctions in the Dutch-German dialect continuum

Abstract

This study investigates the phonetics and phonology of voicing distinctions in the DutchGerman dialect continuum, which forms a transition zone between voicing and aspiration systems. Two phonological approaches to represent this contrast exist in the literature: a[±voice] approach and Laryngeal Realism. The implementation of the change between the two language types in the transition zone will provide new insights in the nature of the phonological representation of the contrast. In this paper I will locate the transition zone by looking at phonetic overlap between VOT values of fortis and lenis plosives, and I will compare the two phonological approaches, showing that both face analytical problems as they cannot explain the variation observed in word-initial plosives and plosive clusters.

Accent boundaries and linguistic continua in the laryngeal subsystems of English

“…In contrast, it has been stressed above that the geographical distribution of laryngeally deviant accents of English in the linguistic north is not considered accidental at all: they are all located in the transition zone between Scots-speaking regions and the GE-speaking rest of England. In a sense, their emergence should not be surprising since, as Ouddeken (2016) demonstrates, hybrid systems naturally arise under laryngeal contact -even though for historical and political reasons, the Scots-English dialect/language continuum does not exhibit the usual form of gradual transition in every aspect.…”

“…We have seen, then, that in laryngeal phonological typology, standard forms of Dutch are classified as voice systems, due to phonetic voicing in their lenis obstruents and the lack of aspiration in their fortis counterparts -unlike most other Germanic languages such as Standard German, which is characterised by aspirated voiceless plosives for fortis and (variably) voiceless unaspirated (tenuis) for the lenis set. However, as Ouddeken (2016) points out, the transition zone of the Dutch-German dialect continuum in Europe comprises intermediate systems with a phonetic overlap between VOT values for fortis and lenis plosives. In this paper we claim that the situation Ouddeken sketches out bears a close resemblance to the present-day distribution of laryngeal systems in Britain brought about by historical changes and dialect contact: a number of regions in the far north of England, sandwiched between Scots (a voice language, as it will be recalled, with RVA) and mainstream varieties of English English spoken to the south (belonging to the type referred to above as GE, an aspiration language), have been reported to exhibit hybrid laryngeal systems that may lack aspiration and have partial, asymmetrical voice assimilation.…”

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A parallel is drawn between the northernmost regions of England represented by Durham and Yorkshire and the transition zone Ouddeken (2016) identifies between voicing and aspiration languages in the Dutch-German dialect continuum. It is argued that, owing to historical changes and dialect contact, the Northern Englishes discussed exhibit hybrid laryngeal systems as a result of being geographically intermediate between Scots in Scotland, which is a voice language similar to Dutch, and mainstream varieties of English spoken more to the south in England (and in most of the rest of the English-speaking world), which are aspiration systems of the German type.

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