Abstract
Frisian vowel breaking is an opaque synchronic process whereby the ingliding diphthongs [iə,yə,uə,eə,oə] alternate with the ‘broken’ vowels [jɪ,jø,wo,jɛ,wa] (Tiersma 1978ff). Cross-linguistically, synchronically opaque alternations tend to regularize diachronically (e.g. Sneller 2018), as has been explicitly predicted for Frisian vowel breaking (Arndt-Lappe & Ernestus 2020). Synchronically, such ongoing sound change presents as variation, and indeed, variation in Frisian vowel breaking has been observed anecdotally (e.g. Stefan 2022). However, phonetic measurements, including of change over time, are lacking; the most recent ones still date from 1985 (de Graaf).
We, hence, use the recently-completed Boarnsterhim corpus (Kingma et al submitted) to conduct a novel phonetic investigation of Frisian vowel breaking. The corpus contains 112 speakers from the Boarnsterhim municipality born between 1897 and 2001 recorded in 1980 and/or 2010. Both spontaneous and read speech are available. We present two analyses of this rich phonetic dataset. The first analysis used GAMs (Wood 2017) to model apparent-time changes in ingliding and breaking vowels’ F1–F2 trajectories, taking account of potentially-nonlinear formant dynamics (Voeten, Heeringa, & Van de Velde 2022). We discuss evidence of [jɪ] and [wa] merging with [iː,uː], and evidence suggesting a reconfiguration of breaking along the front–back dimension.
The second analysis, using read speech only, used mixed-effects logistic regression to determine if words have changed their participation in the breaking allomorphy. We discuss both general factors (specifically: vowel class, part of speech, morphological derivation, ambisyllabicity of the following consonant; these three predictors show significant effects, in addition to other predictors that were not significant) as well as individual differences among words (based on the by-word random effects; cf. Voeten 2021). We discuss which words appear to be changing particularly strongly, with particular attention to morphophonological predictors of that change (cf. Bergsma et al in progress).
References
Arndt-Lappe, S., & Ernestus, M. (2020). Morpho-phonological alternations: The role of lexical storage. In V. Pirrelli, I. Plag, & W. U. Dressler (Eds.), Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs: Vol. 337. Word knowledge and word usage: A cross-disciplinary guide to the mental lexicon (pp. 191-227). Mouton de Gruyter.
Bergsma, F., Fingerhut, K., Kingma, M. & Van 't Veer, M. (in progress). Breaking ground: Frisian breaking in adjectives reanalysed.
De Graaf, T. (1985). Phonetic aspects of the Frisian vowel system. North-Western European language evolution, 5, 23-40.
Kingma, M., Pinget, A-F., Heeringa, W. & Van de Velde, H. (submitted). The Boarnsterhim Corpus: A Frisian-Dutch bilingual speech corpus in apparent- and real-time. Language Resources and Evaluation.
Sneller, B. (2018). Mechanisms of phonological change. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Stefan, M. H. (2022). Spoken Frisian: Language contact, variation and change. PhD dissertation, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
Tiersma, P. M. (1978). Bidirectional leveling as evidence for relational rules. Lingua, 45, 65-77.
Tiersma, P. M. (1979). Breaking in West Frisian: a historical and synchronic approach. Utrecht Working papers in Linguistics, 8, 1-41.
Tiersma, P. M. (1979). Aspects of the phonology of Frisian based on the language of Grou. Meidielingen fan de stúdzjerjochting Frysk oan de Frije Universiteit yn Amsterdam, 4.
Tiersma, P. M. (1980). The lexicon in phonological theory. PhD dissertation, Indiana University.
Tiersma, P. M. (1982). Local and general markedness. Language, 58, 832-849.
Tiersma, P. M. (1983). The nature of phonological representation: evidence from breaking in Frisian. Journal of Linguistics, 19, 59-78.
Voeten, C. C. (2021). Individual differences in the adoption of sound change. Language and Speech, 64(3), 705-741.
Voeten, C. C., Heeringa, W., & Van de Velde, H. (2022). Normalization of nonlinearly time-dynamic vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 152(5), 2692-2710.
Wood, S. N. (2017). Generalized additive models: An introduction with R (2nd edn.). Chapman & Hall.
We, hence, use the recently-completed Boarnsterhim corpus (Kingma et al submitted) to conduct a novel phonetic investigation of Frisian vowel breaking. The corpus contains 112 speakers from the Boarnsterhim municipality born between 1897 and 2001 recorded in 1980 and/or 2010. Both spontaneous and read speech are available. We present two analyses of this rich phonetic dataset. The first analysis used GAMs (Wood 2017) to model apparent-time changes in ingliding and breaking vowels’ F1–F2 trajectories, taking account of potentially-nonlinear formant dynamics (Voeten, Heeringa, & Van de Velde 2022). We discuss evidence of [jɪ] and [wa] merging with [iː,uː], and evidence suggesting a reconfiguration of breaking along the front–back dimension.
The second analysis, using read speech only, used mixed-effects logistic regression to determine if words have changed their participation in the breaking allomorphy. We discuss both general factors (specifically: vowel class, part of speech, morphological derivation, ambisyllabicity of the following consonant; these three predictors show significant effects, in addition to other predictors that were not significant) as well as individual differences among words (based on the by-word random effects; cf. Voeten 2021). We discuss which words appear to be changing particularly strongly, with particular attention to morphophonological predictors of that change (cf. Bergsma et al in progress).
References
Arndt-Lappe, S., & Ernestus, M. (2020). Morpho-phonological alternations: The role of lexical storage. In V. Pirrelli, I. Plag, & W. U. Dressler (Eds.), Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs: Vol. 337. Word knowledge and word usage: A cross-disciplinary guide to the mental lexicon (pp. 191-227). Mouton de Gruyter.
Bergsma, F., Fingerhut, K., Kingma, M. & Van 't Veer, M. (in progress). Breaking ground: Frisian breaking in adjectives reanalysed.
De Graaf, T. (1985). Phonetic aspects of the Frisian vowel system. North-Western European language evolution, 5, 23-40.
Kingma, M., Pinget, A-F., Heeringa, W. & Van de Velde, H. (submitted). The Boarnsterhim Corpus: A Frisian-Dutch bilingual speech corpus in apparent- and real-time. Language Resources and Evaluation.
Sneller, B. (2018). Mechanisms of phonological change. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Stefan, M. H. (2022). Spoken Frisian: Language contact, variation and change. PhD dissertation, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
Tiersma, P. M. (1978). Bidirectional leveling as evidence for relational rules. Lingua, 45, 65-77.
Tiersma, P. M. (1979). Breaking in West Frisian: a historical and synchronic approach. Utrecht Working papers in Linguistics, 8, 1-41.
Tiersma, P. M. (1979). Aspects of the phonology of Frisian based on the language of Grou. Meidielingen fan de stúdzjerjochting Frysk oan de Frije Universiteit yn Amsterdam, 4.
Tiersma, P. M. (1980). The lexicon in phonological theory. PhD dissertation, Indiana University.
Tiersma, P. M. (1982). Local and general markedness. Language, 58, 832-849.
Tiersma, P. M. (1983). The nature of phonological representation: evidence from breaking in Frisian. Journal of Linguistics, 19, 59-78.
Voeten, C. C. (2021). Individual differences in the adoption of sound change. Language and Speech, 64(3), 705-741.
Voeten, C. C., Heeringa, W., & Van de Velde, H. (2022). Normalization of nonlinearly time-dynamic vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 152(5), 2692-2710.
Wood, S. N. (2017). Generalized additive models: An introduction with R (2nd edn.). Chapman & Hall.
Publication type
Presentation
Presentation
DvdF25_Voeten_Kingma.pdf
(91.35 KB)
Year of publication
2025
Conference location
Utrecht
Conference name
Dag van de Fonetiek 2025
Publisher
Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen