Re: Language Change

On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> I understand that
> German uses rhyme in poetry, despite having a lot of words ending in
> /@n/ or /@/, due, presumably, to the areal influence of many of the
> European languages' using rhyme in poetry.
But rhyme in German (as in Dutch) never uses only the last syllable,
but the last *accented* syllable with everything that comes after it.
And in Dutch or German, a syllable with a shwa is of necessity an
unaccented syllable.

Examples in Dutch (could probably do it in German but that's much
harder with a lot more chance to get it wrong)

pan [pAn] : kan [kAn]              (pan - jug)
pannen ['pAn@] : kannen ['kAn@] : vermannen [v@r'mAn@]  (pans - jugs
- to pull oneself together)

(pronouncing the /n/ means that one is either from the North or a
pedant; but rhyming _panne_ "breakdown of car" with _kannen_ is
frowned upon, even if one pronounces the endings the same way)

Everything after the last accented syllable should also be the same
for words to rhyme - "mannen" (men) doesn't rhyme with "spanning"
(excitement) even though the accented syllables themselves rhyme.

   Irina

--
            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself) - http://valdyas.conlang.org (Valdyas)
        http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (home)