Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/100

88 HOLLAND [LANGUAGE. may have dropped out, as in the other German languages, while before ch the d was shortened to a, which like a in other cases before ch passed into o (hence, in the spoken language, brocht, docht exist side by side with bracht, daclit), or the suflix may be appended to the non-nasalized stem. That each Germanic language may in these cases have gone its own way is evident from the Anglo- Saxon, where such a form as gihohta indicates an older form gi]&amp;gt;ankta. Vowels. As early as the Middle Dutch period, the final vowels of the inflexions, i and u as well as c, had for the most part lost their sound. The i which gave rise to the umlaut was in great measure elided in some words before the umlaut period, in others later. The number of words in which no umlaut occurs is increased ; in some words it is absent, even while i is retained or has passed into e ; this depends on the greater or less sensitiveness of the dialect for the umlaut : laat, comparat. later ; beter ; Middle Dutch hoved, Modern Dutch hoofd; teugcl; Middle Dutch hoge, Modern Dutch verheugd, heug; bleu[de], bloode ; edcl, adel. Analogy has also played a great part in the modification of formations (vast, vaster, along with vesting, vesten; macht, macktig, along with amecMig; hand, handen, handig, along with bchcndig). A has in open syllables the sound of English a in father, in closed syllables that of the English a in as ; when there is a perfect sound in closed syllables the spelling is aa (jaar), in open syllables a (maken); in bad, nat, a = a. An original short a and a long a in open syllables are even in Middle Dutch pronounced alike, and may be rhymed with each other (dagen, lagen, a rhyme which was not permitted in Middle High German). In the Saxon dialects d was expressed by ao (some words came in this way into Dutch with oo for ao, as moot, a slice of fish), and a or d in the Frisio-Saxou districts passes into e before r, asjer (jaar). Middle Dutch preserved a in several words where in Modern Dutch it passes into e before r (arg, erg; sarc, zcrk; warf, wcrf); in others, as aarde, staart, zwaard, the Middle Dutch had e and a (crde, stert, swert, swart, start, Modern Dutch zwaard, staart}. In foreign words, likewise, e before r has become a; paars, perse; lantaarn, lanterne (in the dialects e is still frequently retained). In Middle Dutch a before I sometimes, but not usually, becomes o (overtallich side by side with dricvoldich) ; the passage of a into o before ch also occurs (ambocht, brocht, &c. ). In the preterite singular of the first conjugation of strong verbs the a is always retained in Middle Dutch, and has not passed, as in Modern Dutch, into o through the influence of the plural (Middle Dutch ic vant, bant, wi vonden, bonden, Modern Dutch ik von i, bond, &c. ). It is also retained before I and r, c.g.._ barg, starf (though side by side with these we have berg, sterf), where Modern Dutch has borg, sticrf, hielp, &c. In ic sel, hi sel, the c came from the plural w i selen, whereas the present form is again ik zal. A similar influence of analogy is observable in the o for a in the verbs scheren, zweren, and ivegcn, which now have schoor, schoren, zwoor, and woog ; Middle Dutch scar, scdren, wach, &c., in which the a has been displaced by the o of the preterite par ticiple. In the conjugation of the verbs Middle Dutch has e where Modern Dutch has a (geslegen, drcgen, Modern Dutch dragen). In geheven alone e has been kept. In the 3d pers. sing, forms like ontfeet, gcet, steet, occur in Middle Dutch, along with ont- faet. gaet, staet (Modern Dutch ontvangt, gaat, stoat). In participles of verbs in the Germanic -jan, Middle Dutch has in some cases the original form without the umlaut, where Modern Dutch, through the analogy with the present, has the umlaut : Middle Dutch becant, gcnant, gesant ; Modern Dutch bekend, gezonden. This last arose through confusion with the participle of the verb sinden, which had become obsolete, gezant continuing to exist as a sub stantive. In substantives and adjectives we find e (derived from a through i) along with the unchanged a (gretig, graag, from gradig; hekcl, akelig ; edel, adel). The sound of the e derived from a does not differ from that of an original e, or of an e derived from i, as they appear in open syllables (vele, stcden, pronounced as a in English name). If the e derived from a or i 01 the original e occurs in closed syllables, it has a short sound, as in English men, end, Modern Dutch stem ; while before r it is pronounced almost as the e in the High German Herr. Thee in closed syllables with a full sound (as English a; Sweet, ei) is spelled ec: veel, week (c from i), leek. The sharp, clear ee which comes from ai before r and w, followed or not by i or j, is indicated by the same letters in both open and closed syllables: eer, sneemu, zee. Before other consonants followed by i or j we always find ei: verbreidcn, heil, leiden, -heid, Middle Dutch -hede, (hence in Modern Dutch plural -heden). If no i orj followed, then ai became ce (Iced, breed). While in the Saxon dialect of Guelder- land and Overyssel ai is always ee except when i orj follows, an ei often occurs in the western dialects, which has not arisen through the umlaut ; in some places it is even pronounced as ai where the written form has ce : Ysdstein (proper name), gcmcin, &c. ; Modern Dutch steen, gemeen. Sometimes the ei has come from ag or eg through vocalization of the g to j (meid, magcd ; zcif, scgcl) ; sometimes it is from the French ai, ei, e, ee (fontein, hakkenci, bale in, &c.). In individual cases ei stands where the Middle Dutch has c before n : deinzen, Middle Dutch denzen ; peinzen, Middle Dutch pensen and peizen ; sometimes it is the result of an i following : heinde (hende, handi). Since the umlaut has not been equally effective in all dialects, being even wanting where i has passed into e or dropped out, we find words with ce side by side with words with ei. Thus, Middle Dutch has refine, klecne, where Modern Dutch, through the influence of another dialect, has rein, klcin. In Modern Dutch ce frequently exists side by side with ci (verbrecden, verbreidcn ; heelcn, heil) ; in this case there is usually a differentiation of meaning. The dialect of North Holland turns cc into ie (biest, slim, lien, for the Dutch beest, stccn, been) ; and this explains some words with ie in the spoken language : for example, tientje (twig), dricgen (dreigen) 17th century. The letter o represents three sounds : (1) the short sharp o and (2) the short soft o, the former like the o in English not and French soldat (Dutch bod, belofte, tocht, kolf), the latter like the French o in ballon (Dutch vod, ploffen, ochtcnd, vol ; Middle Dutch has frequently u, as uchtcnd); and (3) the full o as in French noter (Dutch kolen, slotcn, vcrloren). The sharp clear oo lias almost the same sound as the full o ; in some dialects (among others the Saxon) it is pronounced as double oo, in others (Flemish and Hollandsch) somewhat like au. In Middle Dutch, the lengthening of the vowels was frequently indicated by c (before r sometimes by i, as in oir) ; hence ae for d, oe for 6. Where oc occurs in the modern language, it has the sound of u (pronounced like the u in High German, and answering to the Gothic 6, Old High German uo, from ua), which in Middle Dutch was frequently re presented by ou (au; Sweet, p. 6), still so pronounced in West Flemish and the Groningen dialects, 1 though before labials and gutturals it was expressed by ue and oe (bouc, souken, and also guet, mterin, but usually goct, socken, bocc). The Saxon dialects still preserve in these cases an 6 sound which agrees with the MiddleDutch oe (bok, moder); in two words romer (roemcr, however, is also used) and spook o has passed from these dialects into Dutch. As the u (Old German u), which in the modern tongues has passed into ui except before r and /, retains the u sound in the Saxon districts, some words have come into Dutch from these dialects, being written with oe from the similar sound of oc (from 6) and ua (snoet, boer, soezen, alongside of which are Frankish words, smiit, suizcn, &c. ). Except in the Saxon dialects, which are more sen sitive to the umlaut, the modification of oe by i seldom occurs (Modern Dutch groen, zoet, zoekcn, but Saxon gryn, zyt, zyken, cf. Sweet, History of English Sounds, p. 0). InthcGroningen dialect, oi in zoikcn is umlaut of ou (oe = ou; moiidcr, Modern Dutch, mocder). Forms in Modern Dutch as reukeloos, bcuk, geneugtc alongside of rockeloos, bock, gcnoegen, show the oe changed before i in eu, when oe was still pronounced 6; they have thus not umlaut ofoe but of 6. In French words which are completely naturalized long o becomes oc (fac i on = fatsoen). In Middle Dutch, o in some cases occurs instead of oc (u) in open syllables (fjode, inoder). This o for oe rhymes with o ; rhymes like godc (gocde) and gode (Goth. Guys), stocct (stookt) and socct (zoekt), are repeatedly introduced. Thus, too, oe = &amp;lt;Sfrom au and oe = Goth. 6 and u rhyme with each other. The Modern Dutch oo from au is represented by oo both in open and in closed syllables. The full clear o from the German o or u is expressed in closed syllables by oo, in open syllables by o : kool, kolen (English coal), stroom, stroomcn. The umlaut of the soft and sharp o (eu o in High German schon) is rare in Middle Dutch: Modern Dutch vlcugcl, Middle Dutch vlogel ; kcuken, kokene; verhcugcn, hogcn. Side by side with some cases where the umlaut occurs the form without the umlaut is also retained in Modern Dutch (leugcn, logen), sometimes with a difference in the meaning (sprcuk, sprook ; heusch, hoofsch). In the dialects the area of the umlaut is wider. Oe before m and oc and oo before ch, especially in monosyllables, have changed into 3 : bloem, Horn ; zorken, zocht ; roepcn, rocht (whence berucht and gcrucht); koopen, koc/tt. As in rocht, gcrucht, the short soft o from the Middle Dutch has in many words passed into u (Middle Dutch connen, gonncn, joffcr (joncvere) ; Modern Dutch kunnen, gunnen, juffer) ; sometimes both forms have con tinued in use : snorken, snurkcn; plondercn, plundcren; veelvoudig (veelvoldig), mcnigvuldig. In like manner, the forms u and o frolfi ii exist side by side (droppcl, druppd; goi t, grut), as also u from e before I (spul, $2x1). The u had still the Old German pronunciation in the Old Frankish psalms, and this was probably the case also in the oldest Middle Dutch. In Macrlant s style, however, it had already acquired the sound of the French u in nature: thus, Maerlant rhymes nature, cure; gure, pure ; sure, creature. In the dialects we still hear the old sound u and not y (Sweet, p. 6), e.g., Guelders dialect zur, Dutch zyr. Under the influence of the Hollandsch in the 16th and 17th centuries, the u has passed over through oi into ui 1 See DC Bo, Westrlaamsch Idioticon, 1804.