The Influence of English on Afrikaans
(1991)–Bruce Donaldson–
Auteursrechtelijk beschermd
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7.18 Phonological influenceNo-one would dispute that English has had a greater influence on Afrikaans than Afrikaans has had on English. The reasons are sociological and are discussed in chapter two. It is therefore all the more curious that the phonological interference in some forms of South African English resulting from the contact with Afrikaans seems to be more extensive than the influence of English on the sound system of Afrikaans. (see Lanham 1978: 138-165 for examples)Ga naar voetnoot36 Generally speaking, the only permanent and constant phonological influence in Afrikaans emanating from English is to be found in English loanwords, naturally enough, and in the international vocabulary where English and Afrikaans share cognate forms. Such cases of English influence, which form the basis of this section, now constitute an irreversible facet of Afrikaans phonology and should be regarded as examples of phonological change. The far less frequent examples of interference in the pronunciation of the phonemes of indigenous words (i.e. those of Germanic/Dutch origin), which some scholars have described, are, I would maintain, to be regarded merely as interference phenomena at this stage and cannot generally speaking yet be considered as constituting phonological change under English influence. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7.18.1 Indigenous vocabularyThe following are examples of this phonological interference in the pronunciation of indigenous vocabulary. Combrink (1968: 16-17) sees omission of r at the end of a syllable in this light. Several scholars (e.g. Lanham 1967, Louw 1981, Du Plessis 1983) have observed the (growing) tendency in Transvaal to give long a a more rounded pronunciation, i.e. more like o. It seems to have escaped the notice of modern scholars that Mansvelt (1884) also observed this tendency in the Cape and commented: ‘A. (de lange) heeft in veler mond een klank die naar de Geldersche en Noordbrabantsche oa zweemt.’ Mansvelt also maintains, quite correctly, that he has read that it occurs in Amsterdam too. It would seem to me that the phenomenon as such is not necessarily English in origin, but that English may be contributing to the current growing frequency thereof. Louw (1981: 268) refers to Pienaar's (1947) comments on the aspiration of [p], [t] and [k] and unrounding of | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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certain vowels. This aspiration is, in my opinion, haphazard enough to be regarded as an interference phenomenon which is as yet not common or consistent enough to be of relevance to a discussion on phonological change in Afrikaans. (cf. Van Wyk 1976: 142 on aspiration of [t]) Reference to the unrouding of [œy], [ø] and [y] is, on the other hand, frequent enough to warrant further comment here. Although these three sounds do undoubtedly constitute a difficulty for native-speakers of English, I can find no valid argument to assert that their unrounding by native-speakers of Afrikaans is caused by the contact with English. In a similar way it has been claimed that the raised pronunciation of [e:]Ga naar voetnoot37 and [o:] in Afrikaans is the result of English influence but it is now generally accepted that this is not the case and that the so-called Bolandse verhoging is possibly an example of Malay-Portuguese influence. (cf. Rousseau 1937: 135, Van Rensburg, and Combrink 1982: 83) Nevertheless, it is perhaps worth noting that a common characteristic of an English accent in Dutch is the raising of long e and o to a position similar to that of Dutch i and u (written ie and oe). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7.18.2 LoanwordsIt is interesting to compare the way in which English loanwords are pronounced in Dutch with the way they are treated in Afrikaans. Because the average Afrikaner's knowledge of English is vastly superior and more intimate than that of the average Dutchman, he tends to pronounce English loanwords more or less as in English, regardless of how they are spelt. The Dutchman, on the other hand, slavishly follows the written word; to him that is primary, whereas to the Afrikaner the spoken word is primary. A good example of this is provided by the word poeding/pudding. The Dutchman retains the English spelling while giving it a Dutch pronunciation, whereas the Afrikaner retains the English pronunciation while giving it an Afrikaans spelling. The Dutchman is generally speaking not able to pronounce an English (or French) phoneme in a loanword used in a Dutch sentence; the word automatically undergoes a degree of phonological assimilation, for example: garage [xaraʒə], Omo [o:mo:]. The Afrikaner, however, seems to have no difficulty whatsoever in incorporating an English word, even an indispensable, frequently used one,Ga naar voetnoot38 into | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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an Afrikaans sentence while preserving phonemes which do not otherwise occur in his language, for example: [gəra:ʤ], [œumœu]. Another example is provided by the loanwords that contain the English sound [æ]. They preserve that sound more or less perfectly in Afrikaans, although it is not a phoneme of that language, but the Dutch inevitably shift it to the nearest indigenous phoneme, [ɛ]. Thus a spelling sleng is more justified in Dutch than in Afrikaans where such a puristic spelling is at odds with the actual pronunciation. (cf. Smith 1962: 59-60)
De Villiers (1973: 33) comments on the occurrence of [ɪ] in Afrikaans in words (e.g. pienk, India) where one might otherwise expect [ə]:Ga naar voetnoot39 Ons sê almal pienk en ons sê ook speaker met 'n lang ie, en tog is dit teen ons klanksisteem.’ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7.18.3 International vocabularyAlthough the claim that English has had little or no effect on the pronunciation of Afrikaans can be considered valid as far as indigenous vocabulary is concerned, there are several phenomena in the pronunciation of the international vocabulary which are undoubtedly due to the contact with English, presumably because of the presence of cognate forms in English and the extremely common, if incorrect, belief that such words are anglicisms in Afrikaans.
Before proceeding to look at examples of this form of English influence, it is worthwhile devoting a little time to a phenomenon which has been widely debated in the literature on anglicisms and which has been commonly attributed to English but which has also been commonly refuted; the latter point of view would seem to prevail nowadays. This concerns the pronunciation of e and o in unstressed open syllables in words of classical origin, for example: element, president, rekreasie; opposisie, polisie, prokureur. In Dutch such vowels are still clearly pronounced long in accordance with the rules for the pronunciation of vowels in open syllables (Actually a similar tendency has been observed in Dutch, particularly with reference to e. cf. Martin 1968); in Afrikaans, however, they are either reduced to short vowels or even schwa on occasions, as in English. Consequently Rousseau (1937: 144) and Le Roux (1952: 48) regard this phenomenon as the result of English influence, whereas Smith (1962: 72)Ga naar voetnoot40 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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questions whether other internal mechanisms are not at work here and De Villiers (1970: 249) presents a convincing argument to substantiate this claim. I am not sure to what extent teachers still prescribe the use of long vowels in such cases in Afrikaans, but I suspect that the notion has not yet disappeared completely. In this regard it can be useful to note the following comment by Paardekooper with reference to Dutch which was quoted by Kloeke (1951: 51): ‘Bij deze woorden [bedoeld zijn woorden als stesjón, benáál, peróchie, kemíés, kenáál, revíér, tebák, mezíék, kenón, cheféúr] is de vraag niet zo zeer, hoeveel mensen beelden zich in dat ze in tabak een [a] spreken, maar: is er nog wel iemand die het doet, en is er dus wel sprake van een [a]-foneem?... Een fonetisch onderzoek zal vrij zeker op de eerste vraag een ontkennend antwoord geven. In dat geval dient de realiteit van de šva-uitspraak hier aanvaard en “gestandaardiseerd” te worden.’ Paardekooper's, Kloeke's and De Villiers' claims amount in effect to asserting that this phonological change is part of the vergermaansing of such words. If one accepts this argument, the issue requires no further attention in the present work except in as far as it is yet another example of a pseudo-anglicism.
[œ] > [ʌ]
The u in the closed syllable of the following words is frequently pronounced as in the corresponding English cognate forms. Most people would regard this as an interference phenomenon:
In the following loanwords the u is always pronounced [ʌ]:
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[œ] < [u]
In these words the pronunciation also deviates from the spelling; here too the English pronunciation of the u is retained, even when bulletin is given a pseudo-French pronunciation, i.e. [bulə'tin]:
[y] > [ju]
Virtually every scholar that has commented on English influence on Afrikaans phonology has remarked on this phenomenon and usually condemned it. I contend that this must now be regarded as an irreversible shift, i.e. an example of phonological change under English influence. Compared with Dutch not only the insertion of [j] is new but also the shift from [œ] < [u], as in the category above.
[e] > [i]
The raising of [e] to [i] in indigenous words was discussed above where it was concluded that it is not an anglicism. This is most probably not the case when it occurs in international vocabulary such as the following although a combination of factors may be at work here:
The following commonly used loanwords, some of which could be considered as international vocabulary, retain English phonemes which are otherwise unknown to Afrikaans: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[æ]
[œu]
[ʤ]
Van Jaarsveld (1979: 19) refers to sounds such as [ʤ] in Afrikaans as randfoneme.
[ʤ], [tj], [ʃ] as in respectively
[g]
[ʃ]
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[v]
[w]
Bilabial w is an allophone of [v] in Afrikaans which occurs only in certain limited positions (e.g. twee) but never initially as in the loanwords above. Worcester is pronounced with a [v] in Afrikaans but Wellington is not, curiously enough.
[z]
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