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Mersi boku, lezami amwa (lezami-amwa?)! Frase shall have [x]<[R], but [tr\] shall remain [r\]. --- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, Melroch 'Aestan <melroch@...> wrote: > > habarakhe4 skrev: > > How did French acquire the uvular [R]? > > Nobody knows for quite sure. There is a continuous > [R] area in western Europe from Portugal to > southernmost Sweden, where [R] or [R\] spread at the > expense of (probably different varieties of) apical > /r/ during the last two or three centuries -- in > parts of southern Sweden the oldest generation still > had [r] or [4] at the beginning of the 20th century. > > French may well be the area of origin for this > shift, since we know that in 18th century Paris some > speakers tended to merge what was probably [r\] with > /z/ -- _chaire > chaise_ being AFAIK the only word > where the change stuck. If so [R] would have spread > because it optimized the difference between /r/ and > /z/. As to where it "came from" it should be noted > that even in languages where apical /r/ is normal > there are isolated individuals who have exclusively > uvular realizations. > > One notable fact about the spread of the [r] > [R] > change across dialects and languages of western > Europe is that it at first jumped from major town to > major town, skipping the countryside between them > and only later spreading secundarily from these > urban centers. Thus [R] may at one time have been > assiciated with urbanity and modernity, and perhaps > education. It was certainly no optimization of > phonetic distinction between phonemes in languages > which contrasted /X/ or /x/ -- or even /G/! -- from > /r/ before the change. Indeed the [r] > [R] change > may be what triggered the merger of /G/ into /x/ in > Dutch! > > Another notable fact is that in the border areas > both north and south of the western European [R] > area dialect that distinguished [r] and [4] -- > either as different phonemes or as long/short > realizations of /r/ in dialects which had a general > distinction between short and long consonants -- > kept [4] but changed [r] > [R\] > [R]. Thus some > dialects of Occitan and Portuguese ended up with > distinctive /4/ and /R/ phonemes, while > Vestrogothian dialects of Sweden have an allophonic > rule whereby short postvocalic /r/ is realized as > [4] while word-initial, preconsonantal and long /r:/ > is realized as [R]. > > An interesting further development is found in > Brazilian Portuguese where [R] > [X] > [h], with > zero as the logical next step. Also Danish and > South Swedish have coalescence of vowels and > following [R] similar to what happened to > postvocalic [r\] in some Englishes. > > /BP 8^)> -- a Swede with [4] and [r\`] realizations. > -- > Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se > > "Maybe" is a strange word. When mum or dad says it > it means "yes", but when my big brothers say it it > means "no"! > > (Philip Jonsson jr, age 7) >