Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1970, Side 199

J97
ein phonologischer ‘Schub’: Eine umgekehrte Wir-
kung ergibt sich, wenn das phonetische Zentrum von A sich
immer weiter vom Zentrum von B entfernt. Dann ist es mög-
lich, dass die auf dieser Seite liegenden Varianten von B
allmáhlich bevorzugt werden. Auch so kommt das phone-
tische Zentrum von B in Bewegung, und es entsteht ein
phonologischer ‘Sog’:<-A-e-B.’
The dialects of the Danish language area show several
examples of shifts which might indicate such a Schub. In East
Funish, where the equivalent of á is a diphthong uá, we also
find a vowel combination á + u, which corresponds to the
Old Danish phoneme combinations ö+k and ö+gh. Thus,
Bog ‘book’ is pronounced bá’u, Plov ‘plough’ plá’u, kroget
‘crooked’ krá'u.
West Funish, on the other hand, has áu as the equivalent
of ODan. á, and here an imminent merger with the vowel
combination á + u has caused a shift of this combination to
öu. Here Bog, Plov, kroget are pronounced bö’u, þlö’u, krö'u,
and a similar shift may be noticed in the case of the two
parallel diphthongs ODan. e-^æj and ODan. 0^-öj, oj. Here,
too, the vowel combinations æ+j and ö+j, different in origin
from æj, öj, are pushed aside, but now with the result that the
second component of the diphthong disappears. In East
Funish, where lede ‘to search’ is pronounced li'3, and sede
‘sweet’, syö, we find the forms læj (lege ‘to play’) and söj
(sege ‘to seek’). But in West Funish, where lede and sade are
pronounced læi' and söv, soi', we find forms without j of the
types le' (lege) and so' (soge).
A similar phenomenon can be seen in two other dialect
areas where the development ODan. á->áu has taken place.
West Funish has also a vowel combination ou, which, threaten-
ed by the above-mentioned diphthong áu, is shifting in the
direction of a narrower pronunciation of the first component,
úu. But here, by contrast, we see an example of a small
dialect-speaking community which does not keep up any
‘margin of security,’ in as much as two phoneme manifesta-