Re: s-stems in Slavic and Germanic

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 3:55:12 PM on Saturday, February 14, 2009, Andrew
> Jarrette wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen"
> > <tgpedersen@> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >> They are sisters, and they are both Scottish. But even
> >> some Dutch people think they're Dutch
>
> > How do you know this? They certainly don't look alike. If
> > they are both Scottish, they have weird Scottish accents,
> > ones that I don't recognize.
>
> The one on the viewer's left speaks near-RP with occasional
> traces of a Scottish accent.

Note that she uses [oU] or [o:], not [&U], and though she comes across
as an RP speaker, nevertheless she trills many of her r's. To me,
this suggests "foreigner who speaks English well but is not 100% free
of her native tendencies in pronunciation". Like I've mentioned below
she also tends to use slightly retracted s's as in Dutch.

The other one speaks a diluted

> version of the same basic variety.
>

But she pronounces most of her English s's the Dutch way (somewhat
retracted), and she tends to exaggerate her English r's (or pronounce
them not quite right). Her Dutch pronunciation is also impeccable,
e.g. never aspirating her prestress p's, t's, or k's, as a native
English speaker would. I get a very strong impression that she is
Dutch, however good her English is (and there are many more Dutch
people with good English than there are English people with good Dutch).


Andrew