Sandhi
Sandhi (Sanskrit संधि, saṃdhi , سَندھی [sɐndʱi] m. - "composition") is a term from the Sanskrit grammar of Panini , which is still used in linguistics today to describe systematic phonological changes when two morphemes or words come together to describe. Sandhi is used to simplify pronunciation by aligning successive elements. This can be done by omitting or adding phonemes as well as by changing the place of articulation or phonation .
Types
Internal sandhi
An internal sandhi occurs when two morphemes within a word are involved. For example in Turkish , where a final -k becomes -ğ if the following morpheme begins with a vowel. So köpek "the dog" ( nominative ) becomes through the accusative - suffix -i to köpeğ-i "the dog" (accusative).
Another example is the systematic change of the prefix syn- to sym- in Greek and, as a result, also in English and German . If the following morpheme begins with a labial , the originally alveolar nasal n becomes the labial nasal m. Comparison: synopsis, synthesis, contain vs. Sympathy, symmetrical, receive. The word "Sandhi" is itself an example of the opposite case - it is a combination of "sam" and "dhi".
External sandhi
External sandhi is the name given to comparable phonological changes when two words come together, for example to be observed regularly during the liaison in French . One case in English is the change of the indefinite article a to an when the following word starts with a vowel. All languages of the Rhineland and its surroundings ( Rhenish Hessian , Palatinate , Luxembourgish , Ripuarian , Limburgish ) know it in different, often optional, forms. In Kölschen , emphasis and sentence melody are often meaningful, up to and including negation, which is supported by the Sandhi. Sandhi also plays an important role in the Alemannic dialects ; the effects on the morphology are particularly striking .
Examples
An example from Rhineland, the word "I": Isch hann ... "I have ...", one possible answer: Ijj_ävver nit. “But not me.” (Jj can be spoken like j and like a voiced sh); if you are in a hurry or do not want to disturb you can make this clear by speaking quickly / high up in the tone of a statement: Ka j schö_sare? instead of asking: Can Isch say Tschööh? , both: "May I say goodbye?"
Examples from Alemannic are d 'woman > [pfræʊ] ' the woman '; d 'Mueter > [ʔmuətːər] ' the mother ', g'bote > [potːə] ' commanded '.
An example from Norwegian : Jeg har says → Jeg ha schagt (rs → sch) ("I said")
In East Limburg, near the German-Dutch border, one can find so-called melodious sounds . In Krieewelsch, for example, there is no grammatical difference between dän Dotz (the little boy), dä Mann (the man) and däm Buom (the tree) , all are nominative singular masculine , the replacing "m" and "n" or the omitted "r" the article is pure sandhi.
In Luxembourgish , for example, the word composition Dammen + Schong → Dammeschong (women's shoes) does not include an “n”, which appears to be much easier to speak. This and some similar “n” or “nn” failures are described by the so-called Eifel rule , which documents this Sandhi phenomenon for a large number of West Central German dialects . It is also an example of a rule that describes both internal and external sandhi.
In some Central German and most Upper German dialects, I am used instead of us : Mir ham des net knew. This is due to Sandhi: In sentences like yesterday we ate in the restaurant , the preceding n causes a change from labiodental w to bilabial m .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Damaris Nübling : Klitika in German. Written language, colloquial language, Alemannic dialects. Narr, Tübingen 1992, p. 253.