Re: American Dutch dialects

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

>
>
> > The English preservation of /w/ is no more unnatural than the Danish
> > preservation of /sk/, which changed in all other Germanic languages
> > at least before front vowels, and in some before all vowels.
>
> The idea that Danish, unless Swedish and Norwegian, preserved /k/ and
> /sk/ before front vowels is a common misconception, although it's true
> as a description of the language today. A large number of the dialects
> did in fact palatalize those, today Vendsysselsk and Bornholmsk, the
> two most peripheral dialects, still do, and even in spelling this was
> marked as (s)kj-/(s)ki-. Danish *depalatalized*, most likely under
> German influence; those spellings became obsolete around 1900. My
> favorite example is 'sky' /skü?/ "aspic" < French 'jus' /3ü/ > 19th
> cent. Da. /sjü/, falsely understood as 'sky' dial. /sjü?/, now /skü/,
> and depalatalized. Another one is 1900 cent. colloq. 'skersant'
> "sergeant", falsely depalatalized from /sjersjant/,
>
> Torsten
>

Well, like Rick says about the Almodovar script, I really put my foot
in my mouth on that one. The depalatalization you talk about which
changed former /sjy/ to /sky/ on the surface seems completely
artificial, although you say it's because of a regular equation of
dialectal /sj/ = standard(?) /sk/.

Andrew