Re: Consonantal Ayin in Yiddish? (fwd)

[Sylvie Braitman <curlySylvie...>]

This is fascinating!
Ayin is a semitic sound. As far as I know there is no equivalent in any
western language. It involves a glottal at the beginning. This is my
question: isn't it likely that this glottal sound evolved, in a western
context, into an ng, the closest phonem available? Isn't it the closest
phonem available, since to do an Ayin properly, one has to activate the soft
palate almost in a way that one does to do the ng.
Sylvie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Irwin Oppenheim" <i(dot)oppenheim (at) xs4all(dot)nl>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 7:59 AM
Subject: Re: Consonantal Ayin in Yiddish? (fwd)


> ---------- 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.
>
> Â > (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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