Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/99

87 LANGUAGE.] HOLLAND 87 the High German d ; it is formed by the tongue and the upper row of teeth ; the d, on the other hand, which is like the English d and the High German t is formed by the tongue and the roof of the mouth (or the gums above the teeth). 1 In the Old Frankish psalms ulferdc and iltfcrthi still exist side by side, but even then the distinction was probably not a great one ; iu Middle Dutch th has become d, or the th is retained as a mere orthographical convention. While in the psalms a distinction is still preserved between th and d as a final letter, inasmuch as d passes into t, but th, or d derived from th, remains, d at the end of words always changes in Middle Dutch into t or into dt. Where, however, the d had remained before vowels in the conjugations of the verbs or the inflexions of the nouns, the d was in several words afterwards restored, although the sharp sound was preserved. In other instances the sharp sound of the nominative affected the oblique cases, and all forms acquired the sharp sound which then remained in Modern Dutch (rjcznnt, gezantrii n t, riften ; verwant, verwanten) ; and the same change took place especially in indeclinable words, as want, met. In Middle Dutch a tennis or spirant before d changes it into t ; but whether it be owing to difference of dialect or to inaccuracies of orthography, many instances may be pointed out where this does not occur ; thus we find nochtan, ontaen (for onttacn), but along with these also nochdanne, ontdaen. In Modern Dutch this is not the case, but a number of forms are due to the same principle, especially in compounds of prepositions with the article (metten, metier), while in the conjugation of weak verbs also the sulhx de turns into te after sharp consonants (legde, lachte, Middle Dutch locch}. On account of the sharpening of the d as a final letter, no d is ever found before the suffix -nis, and t even occurs before an afterwards inserted c, as in beeltcnis (the same is the case with/, b, v, as vergiffcnis for rcrgifnis). After o, oe, or ui the d passes into/, though in Middle Dutch in stances seldom occur (Middle Dutch ruden, Modern Dutch ruien; Middle Dutch rodcn, Modern Dutch uitroeien); sometimes it drops out (kivede, kivee). The spoken language goes much farther thali the written in this use of/ for d; thus dooje, gocjc are written doode, goedc. In like manner the spoken language has changed d into w after an or ou derived from al or ol ; thus we find the pronunciation ouwe, gouvjcn, kouw, with the spelling oude, gouden, koude. In the adjectives ouwclijk and kouwelijk the w has become established. Except after vowels in verbs where h has dropped out, whenever there is no preceding consonant, and an r follows either immediately or after an c, d is inserted after Z, n, r (kelder, zwaarder, helder, (Mender, donder), an insertion which is less common in Middle Dutch (helre, solre, donrc; also, however, dondre}. At the end also of words we often have a paragogic d after n where the Middle Dutch kept the n as the final letter (thus icmand, arend ; Middle Dutch icman, aren) ; after sharp consonants t is added, asgedrocht, burcht, borst ( High German bursc/ic), and also in mijnent, &c. D is frequently syncopated as a penultimate consonant before s : th r ms for thands, volgens for volgcnds. Ascm, wascm, perhaps, have not dropped the d (th) before s, but have changed th into s. While the final t has partly grown out of d, it is partly also the common Low German and English t (tal, laten, haat). Between s and r in words derived from the Romance tongues a t is inserted owing to the common German dislike to sr (stroop from sirop) ; after n, and also before the suffix -lijk, the introduction of t, which was frequent in the 16th century, is less and less heard, and on this point the written speech is far before the spoken (v:ezenlijk, ciycnlijk are frequently pronounced wezeiitlijk, eigcnilijk ; ordentelijk alongside of ordclijk at an early date has acquired the t, and after wards an inserted c, at the same time modifying its signification). In the dialects (Limburg, Brabant, Utrecht) the final t after con sonants and vowels is frequently dropped: hij heef (hccft), nie (nict). The compound ts serves in words borrowed from the French to represent the Dutch pronunciation of the French sound f (fatsocn, Fr. fa^on). While the present language, both in orthography and pronunciation, makes a distinction between s (as in the English sound) and z (as in the English hazel), the Middle Dutch had only s (though in the later MSS. z begins to appear), and Frisian is still in the same position. Before a vowel or w, s has for the most part passed into z, except in those words in which it is followed either by a long or short vowel succeeded by s, or by a short vowel before s or k ; or 2 was sharpened into s by a t from the preposition te: zoel, zwak, zitten; sisscn, suizen, sokken, samen (from tsamen for te zamen). In foreign words the s usually remains (valuut, soldij). Contrary to the pronunciation, z is written in zestig and zcventig (pronounced sestig, seventig, and in dialects tscstig, tseventig).&quot; The z in the middle of a word, after a syllable which originally had no accent, has passed into r: genercn, bcvrooren; at the same time we have the forms gcnezen (to heal), levrozcn, and in the Middle Dutch vroos along with vroor, and kozen with korcn. In many cases the meaning has been modified. 1 Compare on^tlus point Kern in the Taalkundige Jiijdntgen, i. 175. 2 Tliis dialect t )ias probably come from the Old Saxon ant- (liund), which stood before zeventig, tac/itiy, negentig (dialect tnegentig). From these words the sharpening of the initial consonant has spread to the other numerals: veertignnd rijftig are pronounced fcertig an&fijftig. Prothcsis of s occurs in smoel for mod. Such forms as slink and Knk,snebbe and ncbbe, zu-cnken &ndwanken, go back to older forms, and arc thus probably doublets of much older date than the break ing of! of the German languages from each other. As in English so in Dutch b is the undisplaced German medial. At the beginning and in the body of a word it has the same sound; at the end it is pronounced as p (see p. 86). In Middle Dutch for the most part b was followed by a vowel (Middle Dutch viclbc, Modern Dutch web) ; this vowel fell away in Modern Dutch, but the b remained in the written language. Wherever the b represents -Ij it is doubled, just as after a short vowel (krab, krabben). So, too, f requentatives have bb (krabbelai, kibbelen, with which compare Modern Dutch kijvcn, Middle Lower German kibben; stribbclcn side by side with strcvcn; compare also hebben and hecft, Old Frankish Ubban, Dutch Icvcn). After a or S + m, b fell away both as a middle letter and as a final consonant; but this is not as yet general in Middle Dutch; alongside of crom, omme, we find cramp, ornbc, while in Modern Dutch we always have lam, krom, dom, om. In substantives ending in m with a preceding long vowel, wherever the diminutive particle je is appended, a p is inserted (kruim, kruin^ye; blocm, blocmpjc); but this does not take place after an imperfect vowel where an e is inserted (kam, kammetje). As in English the p has not been displaced, and it has the same sound (paard, post, ]rink, lap). For the English /as an initial letter (c/. Sweet, Hist, of English Sounds, p. 78), Modern Dutch as well as Middle Dutch has/ and r. In the body of a word the/ passes intor (=-yin English lover), or is doubled after short vowels (leef, leven ; plof, ploffen}. At the end and also before consonants after vowels, v becomes / (hoofd, Middle Dutch hovcd; af, Middle Dutch are and /). Verbs in -elen have /before e (schuifden from schuiven). F (v) is the common German /, and accordingly interchanges with th, as in ofte (Got. aiththau) English or; but of (Got. iba)-= English if; vcel (filu). Before vowels and I, f is sometimes pre served in pure German words, while in others of the same sort v appears (frisch, versch; flink, vlak; fel, vcchtcn); so also in ths Old Dutch psalms we find- rater along with/arfcr, while in Middle Dutch likewise a similar variation prevails. Usually the precedence of a sharp consonant in Middle Dutch causes the v to become / (mcsfal, ontfaen ; cf. val and men; but also mesval, &c. ). The combination/!; has in Dutch passed into cht, but it appears in the dialects, and was more frequent in Middle Dutch (verkocht, hecht, sticht, aehter ; verkofl, heft, stift, after). On the other hand in the psalms and the Glossce Lipsiancc, and also in dialectic charters, we find occasionally ft for lit: druften (druhtin), suftc (stem suk), ccndraftig (for ecndrachtig). The liquids are unchanged, except m and n in inflexional ter minations. In certain other cases Z interchanges with n: for example, slak, High German schnecke; Schevelimjen (17th century), Scheveningen, &c. By the Z sound a preceding a or e is turned into o, aeovertollig (tal); in some instances ol changes into mi, e.g., goud, oud, zout ; if the o before e passes into u (see under o), then the solu tion does not take place (gulden; Middle Dutch hultcn, Modern Dutch houten;menigvuldig). In Middle Dutch we have ul, ol, and ou side by side. M remains with stem vowels, in the suffix -ma (even where it becomes n in High German), as bloem, bczem (High German bcsen), and in hem, dat. sing. 3d pers. pron. In other cases it passes into n in inflexional terminations ; den (High German dem), geven (1st pers. plu. pres. ) ; mb becomes mm, and consequently m. In maar, m represents mo (mcare for tie ware). In drcmpel, in is inserted. The r is of very various character. In the first place we have the dental r, agreeing Avith the Italian r in ragazzo for example, raad, rust, hart ; and secondly we have the guttural r, only heard in words which had hr in Old German (ring, ros, rcuzcl). As the former is a difficult sound for many Dutchmen, especially for those of the Saxon district, the guttural r is used instead, of it. In the Saxon districts we find, besides, a very strong consonant called by Sievers the &quot; cerebral&quot; r (e.g., hard, worst, marsch). Although it is not distinctly audible, a practised observer can hear it, just as in the English letter, hard. 3 The r derived from z belongs to the first class. Through the influence of the r, short vowels are lengthened in Middle Dutch (acrch, aerbcid, for arg, arbeid). Transposition of the r, both before and after the vowel, is frequent in Middle Dutch and in Modern Dutch: godsvrucht, nooddruft, dcrtig, barnen, kcrsten (krisl). Before r, n was elided in Middle Dutch (mire for minre, &c.); before m it was assimilated (onmate, animate), and before b it passed into m (ombcraden) ; but in Modern Dutch this change does not take place. In some words beginning with a vowel, n has been prefixed through the influence of the declined article, the possessive pronoun, or the preposition in: thus naarstig, Middle Dutch naernst, grew out of in ernst; navonds from arond ; noom (17th century) out of min oom( Modern Dutch, however, has oom). As regards thepreterites dacht and bracht along with dcnkcn and brengen, which appear in Middle Dutch, no certainty has been attained. The n in this case-
 * Kern, Taalk. Bijdr., 1. 21