Hamont dialect phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Hamont dialect of Limburgish.

Consonants

• /m, p, b, β/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.^[1]
• /p, t, k/ are unaspirated [p˭, t˭, k˭].^[2]
• The glottal stop [ʔ] occurs in strong onsets of word-initial vowels.
• The word-initial /sx/ cluster can be realized as [ɕx].^[2]
• /ʃ, ʒ/ do not occur as frequently as in many other dialects, and can be said to be marginal phonemes.^[2]
• /ŋ, k, x, ɣ/ are velar, whereas /j/ is palatal.^[1]
• /ʀ/ is a uvular trill. Word-finally it is devoiced to either a fricative [χ] or a trill fricative [ʀ̝̊].^[3]
• Other allophones include [ɱ, ɲ, c, ɡ]. They appear in contexts similar to Belgian Standard Dutch.^[2]
• Voiceless consonants are regressively assimilated. An example of this is the past tense of regular verbs, where voiceless stops and fricatives are voiced before the past tense morpheme [də].^[2]
• Word-final voiceless consonants are voiced in intervocalic position.^[2]

Vowels

The Hamont dialect contains 22 monophthong and 13 diphthong phonemes.^[5] The amount of monophthongs is higher than that of consonants.^[5]

Monophthongs

Monophthongs of the Hamont dialect, from Verhoeven (2007:221). Note that the unstressed vowel /ə/ is not shown, and that phonetically, short /y/ is more like [ʏ] than [y]. This is not reflected on this vowel chart.^[5]

Verhoeven (2007) does not consider /ɪ–eː/ to be a short–long pair.^[7] They have nevertheless been placed in the table in that manner to save space. The same applies to the phonetically mid vowel /ə/, which has been placed in the open-mid column.

On average, long vowels are 95 ms longer than short vowels.^[2] This is very similar to Belgian Standard Dutch, in which the difference is 105 ms.^[8]

All short vowels except /æ, ɑ/ are somewhat more open and central than their long counterparts. Short /æ/ and /ɑ/ are somewhat closer and more front than their long counterparts. The differences however are very small, which seems to indicate that this dialect distinguishes vowel pair only by duration. The only exception to this is /y/, which is substantially more open and more central than the long version.^[5] Note that none of these differences are indicated on the monophthong chart to the right.

• Notes about close vowels:
  • /i, iː/ are close front unrounded [i, iː].^[5]
  • /y/ is more open and more central than its long counterpart /yː/, and is therefore best transcribed [ʏ].^[5]
  • /yː/ is close near-front rounded [y̠ː].^[5]
  • /u, uː/ are close back rounded [u, uː].^[5]
• Notes about mid vowels:
  • /j/ is slightly lowered close-mid front unrounded [e].^[5]
  • /eː/ is close-mid front unrounded [eː].^[5]
  • /øː/ is close-mid near-front rounded [ø̠ː].^[5]
  • /ʏ/ is slightly lowered close-mid central rounded [ɵ].^[5]
  • /oː/ is close-mid back rounded [oː].^[5]
  • /ə/ is mid central unrounded [ə], and occurs only in unstressed syllables.^[2]
  • /ɛ, ɛː/ are open-mid front unrounded [ɛ, ɛː].^[5]
  • /œ, œː/ are open-mid near-front rounded [œ̠, œ̠ː].^[5]
  • /ɔ, ɔː/ are open-mid back rounded [ɔ, ɔː].^[5]
• Notes about open vowels:
  • /æ, æː/ are open front unrounded [a, aː].^[5]
  • /aː/ is open central unrounded [äː].^[5]
  • /ɑ, ɑː/ are open back unrounded [ɑ, ɑː].^[5]

Monophthong-glide combinations

All monophthong-glide combinations are restricted to the syllable coda.^[7] This is not the case in the neighbouring dialect of Weert, where the short monophthong-glide combinations may be followed by a tautosyllabic consonant.^[9][10]

Diphthongs

Dialect of Hamont contrasts long and short closing diphthongs. The long ones are on average 70 ms longer than their short equivalents. Centering diphthongs are all long.^[5]

Closing diphthongs of the Hamont dialect, from Verhoeven (2007:221)

Centering diphthongs of the Hamont dialect, from Verhoeven (2007:221)

• /iːə/ is phonetically [i̞ːɘ]. It begins near-close front unrounded, ends close-mid central unrounded.^[5]
• /yːə/ is phonetically [ʏːɘ]. It begins near-close near-front rounded, ends close-mid central unrounded.^[5]
• /uːə/ is phonetically [ʊːɘ]. It begins near-close near-back rounded, ends close-mid central unrounded.^[5]
• /ɛi, ɛiː/ are phonetically [ɛ̠i̞, ɛ̠i̞ː]. They begin open-mid slightly retracted front unrounded, end near-close front unrounded.^[5]
• /œy, œyː/ are phonetically [œ̠ʏ, œ̠ʏː]. They begin open-mid near-front rounded, end near-close near-front rounded.^[5]
• /oːə/ is phonetically [o̟ːɘ]. It begins close-mid near-back rounded, ends close-mid central unrounded.^[5]
• /ɔːə/ is phonetically [ɔ̽ːɘ]. It begins mid near-back rounded, ends close-mid central unrounded.^[5]
• /ɔu, ɔuː/ are phonetically [ɔ̟ʊ, ɔ̟ʊː]. They begin open-mid near-back rounded, end near-close near-back rounded.^[5]
• /ɑu, ɑuː/ are phonetically [ɐʊ̞, ɐʊ̞ː]. They begin near-open central unrounded, end somewhat lowered near-close near-back rounded.^[5]

Prosody

Like most other Limburgish dialects, but unlike some other dialects in this area,^[10][12] the prosody of the Hamont dialect has a lexical tone distinction, which is traditionally referred to as sleeptoon ('dragging tone') or Accent 1 and stoottoon ('push tone') or Accent 2.^[13] They are transcribed as superscript 1 and superscript 2, respectively.^[1] This distinction can signal either lexical differences or grammatical distinctions, such as those between the singular and the plural forms of some nouns.^[14]

The distinction between Accent 1 and Accent 2 is phonemic only in stressed syllables.^[14]

In final position, Accent 1 is realised as a steady fall [V˥˩] through the rhyme, the Accent 2 is falling-rising [V˥˩˩˥]; the first half of the rhyme is falling, whereas the rest is rising.^[14]

In non-final position, Accent 1's F0 stays high in the first 45% of the rhyme and then falls rapidly towards the end of the rhyme (in IPA, that can be transcribed [V˦˥]). When the focus of the sentence is on a word with Accent 2, it is realized as a very shallow fall-rise combination [V˥˩˩˥].^[15]

In less stressed words, Accent 2 is more similar to the non-final realization of Accent 1: its F0 stays high in the initial twenty percent of the rhyme, then falls towards the end of the rhyme.^[15]

Vowels with Accent 1 are generally shorter than those with Accent 2.^[15]

Sample

The sample text is a reading of The North Wind and the Sun, read by a 75-year-old male middle-class speaker.^[1]

Phonetic transcription

[də noːʀdəʀβ̞ɪːnd ɛn də zɔn | di β̞ɑʀə ʀyzi n̩t maːkə ʔoːvəʀ β̞i t̩ stɛʀkstə β̞ɑs | tun əʀənə vɛ̃ːnt fəʀbɛiː kβ̞ɑːmp mɛ nə β̞ɛʀmə jɑz ɔːn || zə spʀakən aːf ɔm tə pʀobeːʀə | dɛ di vɛ̃ːnt zənə jɑs z̥ɔu uːtʀɛkə || də noːʀdəʀβ̞ɪːnt di β̞æːjdə zu ɦaʀ̥t ʔi kɔs | mɑʀ hu ɦɑʀdəʀ ɦɛi β̞æːjdə | ɦu β̞æːʀməʀ dɔ vɛ̃ːnt sɪɣ ɪndʏfəldə || uːtɛindələk xɑːv ɦɛid ɔp || dɑn bəɣɔzdə zɔn hɔːʀ̥tə sxinə | ʔɛn də vɛ̃ːnt di deːj zənə jɑz uːt || də noːʀdəʀβ̞ɪːnt ti must tɔuɣɛːvə dɛ də zɔn t stɛːʀ̥kstə β̞ɑːs]^[16]

Orthographic version (Standard Belgian Dutch)

De noordenwind en de zon waren ruzie aan het maken over wie het sterkste was toen er een man voorbij kwam met een warme jas aan. Ze spraken af om te proberen de man zijn jas te laten uittrekken. De noordenwind blies zo hard hij kon, maar hoe harder hij blies hoe warmer de reiziger zich induffelde. Uiteindelijk gaf hij het op. Dan begon de zon hard te schijnen en de man deed zijn jas uit. De noordenwind moest toegeven dat de zon het sterkste was.^[17]

Notes

• Noordenwind is realized by this speaker as [ˈnoːʀdəʀβɪːnt], probably under the influence of Belgian Standard Dutch, where it is pronounced [ˈnoːrdə(n)βɪnt]. Strictly speaking, [ɪː] is not part of the Hamont phoneme system.^[15]

References

Bibliography