Re: Chain shifts & transformed u's, was: Blandness

On Mon, 16 Apr 2001 11:54:38 -0600, dirk elzinga
<dirk.elzinga@...> wrote:

>Germanic */u:/ was fronted to /y:/ in Old Franconian during the
>preliterary period. Since the same change occurred in the Vulgar
>Latin of Gaul, it is thought that the change is due to a Celtic
>substrate. (/y:/ in turn was diphthongized except before /r/,
>/w/, and word-finally.)
>
>Modern Dutch /u:/, orth {oe} is from Germanic */o:/. The shift
>to /u:/ was possible since */u:/ had previously shifted to /y:/.
In fact, it didn't need to wait: it seems that literary Dutch (like
literary German) descends from a Frankonian dialect and had /o:/ >
/uo/. (BTW, this may be what the orthographical {oe} used to stand
for.) Quite probable, since the symmetrical /ie/ did exist.


Basilius