Re: [tied] Verner’s Law could be a result of interfamilial contact

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "jouppe" <jouppe@...> wrote:

>
> > --- mkelkar2003 <swatimkelkar@> wrote:
> >
> The accent shift in Germanic is
> > > probably the most
> > > plausible candidate for a contact-induced change.
> > > Here, Wilk follows
> > > Salmons (1992) who suggests a shared Germanic-Celtic
> > > accent shift
> > > talking (sic) place in prehistoric north-western
> > > Europe on the basis
> > > of early and profound contact with a Finno-Ugric
> > > language. This is
> > > based on a vernally accepted view that
> > > Proto-Finno-Ugric had an
> > > initial stress—a view that might be disputed
> > > (Viitso, 1997; 224-5).
>
> - - - - - -
> I don't know Viitsos argument here although I know him to be a very
> competent scholar. I would share his doubt though:
> Finnish may indeed better be interpreted as having no "stress" at
> all. The Finnish phenomenon perceived as "stress" by Swedish and
> English speakers involves purely a hightening of the pitch in the
> first syllable but no increase in vowel quantity and very minor
> increase in "emphasis". No minimal pairs may be constructed on any
> aspect of "stress" since the hightened pitch is 100% conditioned

and

> only marks the word boundary.
>
> In lexical borrowings from Swedish or English with the original
> carrying the stress elsewhere than the first syllable Finnish
> speakers don't perceive to be relocating something like "stress".
> The "stress" of the original is perceived as length and remains on
> the syllable of the original, as in Finnish politiikka <= Swedish
> poli'tik but Finnish poliitikko <= Swedish po'litiker. Only the

pitch

> (word boundary marker) is relocated to the first syllable.
>
> "Perception" is of course a subjective notion here but as I

bilingual

> I am entitled to use it.
>
> The "stress" of Germanic has developed to a completely different

kind

> of phenomenon, with a composition of pitch, length and articulatory
> emphasis combined. Thus not modelled on Finnic I would claim.
>
> Jouppe
> - - - - - -
>
>

- - - - - - -
Corrections and additions: Vowellength is phonemic in the two Swedish
originals above so the examples actually are not valid, nor
necessarily the claim that foreign "stress" would always be perceived
as length when borrowed into Finnish. I can think of counter examples.

Finnish stresspatterns also include secondary pitch on syllables
further in the word so the function is not completely limited to word
boundary marking.

A further observation: Early levels of reconstructed Proto-Finnic had
rather different phonotaxis for quantity in the first and the
following syllables, which could point to a conclusion that the
essence of "stress" may also have been different.

What remains is that for modern Finnic stress is not composite as in
Germanic languages but almost exclusively uses the feature of pitch,
as opposed to duration or expiratory emphasis. In addition the pitch
pattern is 100% conditioned and therefore non-distinctive, which we
would observe in Proto-Germanic as well.

Jouppe