West Frisian phonology

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This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the West Frisian language.

Contents

Consonants

Standard West Frisian consonants [1] [2]
Labial Alveolar Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɡ
Fricative voiceless f s χ h
voiced v z ɣ
Trill r
Approximant w l j

Allophony

/v/ has two allophones: an approximant [ ʋ ], which appears word-initially, and a fricative [ v ], which occurs elsewhere. [13]

The distinction between /ɡ/ and /ɣ/ is very marginal, and they are generally considered allophones of a single phoneme. The plosive [ ɡ ] generally appears at the beginning of a word and at the beginning of a stressed syllable, with the fricative [ ɣ ] occurring elsewhere. [14] [15] However, there are some cases that disturb that distribution, which shows that the allophony is not only caused by stress but also has a morphological factor:

Thus, it appears that the underlying representation of words includes the plosive-fricative distinction. In single-morpheme words, that representation follows the above rule of allophony, but in words with multiple morphemes the underlying status (plosive or fricative) must be known to recover the correct pronunciation.

The schwa /ə/ is often dropped in the combination /ən/, which turns the /n/ into a syllabic sonorant. The specific sonorant that arises depends on the preceding consonant and so it is labial [m̩] when it is preceded by labial [m,p,b], alveolar [n̩] when it is preceded by labiodental or alveolar /f,v,n,t,d,s,z,r,l/, and velar [ŋ̍] when preceded by velar /k,ɣ/. [16]

The schwa is commonly dropped also in /əl/ and /ər/, creating the syllabic sonorants [l̩] and [r̩], respectively. There are also some other cases. [16]

The sequences /nj,sj,zj/ coalesce to [ɲ, ɕ, ʑ], unless /j/ occurs as a part of the rising diphthongs /jɪ,jɛ,jø/.

Final-obstruent devoicing

West Frisian has final obstruent devoicing and so voiced obstruents are merged with the voiceless obstruents at the end of words. Thus, word-final /b,d,v,z,ɣ/ are merged into voiceless /p,t,f,s,χ/, although final /b/ is rare. [17] The spelling reflects that in the case of the fricatives but not in the case of the plosives, which are still written ⟨b⟩ and ⟨d⟩.

Vowels

The vowel inventory of West Frisian is very rich.

Monophthongs

Standard West Frisian monophthongs [18] [19]
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
short long shortlongshortlongshortlong
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

Diphthongs

Standard West Frisian diphthongs [18] [34]
Starting pointEnding point
Front Central Back
Close unroundediə
roundedyəuə
Close-mid unroundedɪə
roundedoiøəoə
Open-mid unroundedɛi
roundedœyɔu
Open unroundedai

Rising and long diphthongs

Frisian is traditionally analysed as having both falling and rising diphthongs. Booij (1989) argues that the rising diphthongs are in fact glide-vowel sequences, not real diphthongs. [42] That view is supported by Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013) who transcribe them with consonant symbols /jɪ,jɛ,wa,wo/, [43] which is the convention that is used in this article.

Frisian also possesses sequences of a long vowel followed by a glide. According to Booij, the glide behaves as a consonant in such sequences since it is shifted entirely to the next syllable when a following vowel is added. Visser [44] also includes sequences of a high vowel plus glide among these. Such sequences are transcribed with a consonant symbol in this article:

  • aai/aːj/ ~ aaien/ˈaː.jən/
  • bliuw/bljoːw/ ~ bliuwen/ˈbljoː.wən/
  • moai/moːj/ ~ moaie/ˈmoː.jə/
  • iuw/iːw/ ~ iuwen/ˈiː.wən/
  • bloei/bluːj/ ~ bloeie/ˈbluː.jə/

Breaking

Some falling diphthongs alternate with rising diphthongs: [18]

FallingRising
DiphthongOrthographyIPATranslationDiphthongOrthographyIPATranslation
/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/sljurkje/ˈsljørkjə/'to meander softly'
  • The /yə/ - /jø/ alternation occurs only in the pair mentioned above. [18]

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References

  1. ↑ Based on the consonant table in Sipma (1913 :8). The allophones [ɲ,ɡ,β̞] are not included.
  2. ↑ Hoekstra (2001), p. 84.
  3. ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 8, 15–16.
  4. 1 2 Keil (2003), p. 8.
  5. ↑ Tiersma (1999), pp. 28–29.
  6. ↑ Tiersma (1999), p. 29.
  7. ↑ Collins & Mees (1982), p. 6.
  8. ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 8, 15–17.
  9. ↑ Collins & Mees (1982), p. 7.
  10. ↑ Gussenhoven (1999), p. 74.
  11. ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 16–17.
  12. ↑ Sipma (1913), p. 15.
  13. ↑ Keil (2003), p. 7.
  14. 1 2 Hoekstra (2001), p. 86.
  15. ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 15, 17.
  16. 1 2 Sipma (1913), p. 36.
  17. ↑ Tiersma (1999), p. 21.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 Booij (1989), p. 319.
  19. ↑ Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013), p. 509.
  20. 1 2 3 Visser (1997), p. 14.
  21. ↑ Tiersma (1999), p. 9.
  22. ↑ Visser (1997), p. 24.
  23. ↑ Visser (1997), p. 19.
  24. 1 2 3 van der Veen (2001), p. 102.
  25. ↑ Sipma (1913), pp. 6, 8, 10.
  26. ↑ Tiersma (1999), p. 11.
  27. 1 2 For instance Booij (1989), Tiersma (1999), van der Veen (2001), Keil (2003) and Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013).
  28. ↑ ⟨ɵ⟩ is used by Sipma (1913) (as ⟨ö⟩, which is how it was transcribed in 1913' see History of the International Phonetic Alphabet), and ⟨ʏ⟩ is used by de Haan (2010).
  29. ↑ Visser (1997), pp. 22–23.
  30. ↑ Tiersma (1999), pp. 10–11.
  31. ↑ Visser (1997), p. 17.
  32. ↑ Tiersma (1999), p. 10.
  33. ↑ Visser (1997), p. 23.
  34. 1 2 Hoekstra (2001), p. 83.
  35. 1 2 3 de Haan (2010), p. 333.
  36. ↑ Hoekstra (2003 :202), citing Hof (1933 :14)
  37. 1 2 3 Tiersma (1999), p. 12.
  38. ↑ For instance, Tiersma (1999), Keil (2003) and Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013).
  39. ↑ For instance, Booij (1989), Hoekstra (2001) and Keil (2003).
  40. ↑ For instance, Tiersma (1999) and Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013).
  41. ↑ Tiersma (1999), pp. 12, 36.
  42. ↑ Booij (1989), pp. 319–320.
  43. ↑ Hoekstra & Tiersma (2013), pp. 509–510.
  44. ↑ "Taalportaal | Constraints on sequences of three or four vowels".

Bibliography

Further reading

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