Re: American Dutch dialects

From: tgpedersen
Message: 63510
Date: 2009-02-28

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@> wrote:
> >
> > -BTW, if you
> > google Belorussian it says it has /v/. Maybe it's the labiodental
> > approximant of Dutch.

Amsterdams seems to have /w/ as in Joan and Mirren's hyena stunt in
Amsterdams ('je weet toch'). There is a long and nonsensical
discussion between Miguel and myself in the archives because I thought
this guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEiRFTuU8w
who I heard on the radio was Surinaams. Obviously not, but since some
comments call him a wannabe I'm still not sure whether his /w/
('verwacht', 'weet') is Amsterdams or Surinaams.

> I'm wrong, it shows both /v/ and /w/ for Belarusian, but from the
> little I've seen of the language, it looks like /w/ only occurs in
> syllable-final position, i.e. forming diphthongs (where other Slavic
> has [v] in this position).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_U
Interesting that it's /xleU/, but /za xlJavóm/, exactly as in Danish
/haU/ vs. /ha?v&ð/. Since the Danish was once all /w/, I think I can
assume Belorussian, and probably all of Slavic, once was too.


Torsten