Re: Consonantal Ayin in Yiddish? (fwd)

[Irwin Oppenheim <i.oppenheim...>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 15:45:05 +0100
From: Olve Utne <utne (at) nvg(dot)org>
Reply-To: jewishshulmusic (at) yahoogroups(dot)com
To: jewishshulmusic (at) yahoogroups(dot)com
Subject: Re: [jewishshulmusic] Consonantal Ayin in Yiddish?

At 10:57 07.03.2002 +0100,Cantor Sam Weiss wrote:
>At 03:36 PM 3/6/02, I. Oppenheim wrote:
> >And Ma'ariv is often pronounced as Mayref, which is
> >also a consonant rendition of the vocal 'Ayin.
>
>I don't believe that the "ay" vowel by itself is relevant to this issue,
>since a dialectal shift from a long Yiddish "ah" vowel to "ay" is not
>uncommon.  If you're saying that there is a nasalization in Dutch "Mayref",
>then that is a different Maynseh.

I have some input here, but I'm afraid it's going to be "somewhat 
scholarly"... . :]


There are two issues here:

1: The change of from long A to AY in Yiddish;
2: The representation of A + 'ayin.

Summary of my mini investigation:
Words with an 'ayin with hhataf patahh (here written as *a*)
immediately after a normal patahh (here written as *A*)
do reflect this as A+Y when the syllable with patahh i stressed
in Yiddish. However, the exact same representation is found
in parallel cases with alef with hhataf patahh after a normal patahh.
This suggests that the AY diphtong is related to the hhataf patahh
rather than whether the original consonant is 'ayin or alef,
rendering the cases with a nasal pronunciation the only likely
evidence of a phonemic opposition between alef and 'ayin in Yiddish.

-Olve Utne
__________________________________________________________


1: DOES THE DEVELOPMENT FROM A  TO AY
    EXIST IN YIDDISH?

As for the change from long A to AY in Yiddish,
that is a  phenomenon I don't know of.
But the opposite change,
from AH (long A) to AY, or from EH (long E) to EY,
is quite common:

AI > AY, AH, EY
       Proto Germanic *STAIN- 'stone' is represented as SHTAYN
       in some Western and Central Yiddish dialects,
       in other W or C dialects, it's pronounced as SHTAHN.
       In E (Eastern) Yiddish, the normal form is either AY or EY (SHTEYN).

Î > AY, A
       Proto Germanic long I has been diphtongised
       in most Western Germanic dialects --
       including, for the most part, Yiddish.
       Hence, Proto Germanic *HWIIT 'white' is represented as VAYS
       in most Yiddish dialects, but in parts of C & E Yiddish, especially
       Polish Yiddish (not Galician), it's often represented as VAHS.

 > (A), O, U
       Proto Germanic long A has evolved into O, and in many dialects
       into U. Proto Germanic *hâr- 'hair' is represented as HOHR, HOR or
       HUHR (hoor) in Yiddish dialects.


The Yiddish pronunciation of ma'ariv has, a.o., the following variations:
       MAYREF - most Yiddish dialects
       MAYREV - Northeastern Yiddish
       MAHREF - mainly Polish Yiddish
       To my knowledge, the form MEYRIV/MEYREF does not exist.
This seems to correspond closer to the distribution of *Î than the one of *AI.
But it is very unlikely that this word has ever been pronounced as *MIIRIV
or *MIIREV at any stage, so there must be a different explanation than the
word following the normal patterns of Germanic vowel shifts.

_____________________________________________________


2: HOW IS 'AYIN REPRESENTED IN YIDDISH

WHICH WORDS EXIST OF THE "MAYREF" CATEGORY?

Words that have A'a > AY:

YA'aLE
       > YAYLEN 'wail'
MA'aLA 'degree; step; advantage'
       > MAYLE 'merit, virtue; advantage
MA'aMAD 'state, position, standing'
       > MAYMED
MA'aNE 'answer, reply' +  LASHON 'tongue; language;
       > MAYNELOSHN 'abusive language, invective'
MA'ARAV 'west'
       > MAYREV
MA'aRIV 'maariv, evening prayer'
       > MAYREV
MA'aSE 'deed, action; tale,story'
       > MAYSE 'story, tale'
MA'aSER 'tithe'
       > MAYSER
TA'aNA 'claim'
       > TAYNE
TA'aNUG 'pleasure'
       > TAYNEG

Words that have A'a > A:
MA'aRAKHA 'battle line; front, battlefield; battle, fight;
       act of a play; order; set'
       > MAROKHE 'fate, lot, fortune'

Words that have A'A > A:
TA'AM 'taste'
       > TAM

 From this, it would be tempting to claim that the 'ayin
tends to be preserved as a consonantal Y sound in some
positions in Yiddish. But on the other hand, words with
alef instead of 'ayin actually give the same result:

MAaRIKH
       > MAYREKH ZAYN 'babble or write extensively'
TAaVA 'passion, desire'
       > TAYVE

So all in all it seems that the explanation lies
in the hhataf patahh rather than in whether there is
an alef or 'ayin there.


The nasal in YANKEV on the other hand is much more
likely to be a direct result of the 'ayin.
It is interesting to note that the Yankev form only exists in
some of the dialects of Yiddish, whereas other dialects have
forms like Yokev (Jokef, Jokew), Yakev and the like.



________________________

Olve Utne <utne (at) nvg(dot)org>
URL: http://utne.nvg.org
________________________



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