Vox Populi—Letters to the Editor Ps. Q. Vol XVI, No 3 Contents The Effect of Coffee Consumption on Adults’ Average MLU at the Breakfast Table—Suzy X.

Mountain Dialect Baffles East European Phonologists

by G. D. Duvkal
(East European Correspondent for Psammeticus Quarterly)

Phonologists in Czechoslovakia and adjacent Slavic countries have been amazed in recent months by the announcement in November of 1988 of a dialect of Czech which is completely lacking in vocoid sounds. Though the dialect has eight contrasting vocalic nuclei, each of these is manifested by a liquid sound, never a vocoid. The vowel system may be schematized as follows:

The dialect in question is spoken in the mountain village known in Standard Czech as Smetí (meaning RUBBISH), located near the border with southern Poland. (The native pronunciation of this name is /smļćļ́/, with short and long palatal laterals for both vowels.) An earlier investigation in the 1930s revealed more types of syllabic liquids in this dialect than in the standard language, as well as a more frequent occurrence of such sounds, as a result of the replacement of all sequences of liquids preceded and/or followed by vowels by long or short syllabic liquids of the four qualities depicted above. In the roughly fifty years since that investigation, the remaining vocoids have been replaced by liquids as well on a very regular pattern. The pattern relating the 1930s dialect to the standard language is summarized in the following rules of sound change: (The acute accent indicates phonemic length.)

(A1)      l   >   ļ   ||   Vft____ ; ____Vft
(A2) [ V́ ] R1[ V́ ]  >  Ŕ̩1
(A3) R1V́  ;  V́R1  >  Ŕ̩1
(A4) R1V  ;  VR1  >  R̩1
(A5) j   >   Ø
(B) ou   >   ó

Notes: A1 was initially just an allophonic change. R1 is any non-syllabic liquid and R̩1 is the corresponding syllabic.

Over the succeeding fifty years, however, the great frequency of syllabic liquids in this dialect has been increased by a merger of all the five vocoid qualities with various liquids. Low vowels have taken on the /r/ quality, back rounded vowels the /l/ quality and the front vowels have become the palatal lateral /ļ/.

Examples illustrating the two stages of this dialect in comparison to Standard Czech are provided in the table below. No mark of syllabicity is provided under the liquid symbols /l ļ r ŗ ĺ ļ́ ŕ ŗ́/ inasmuch as all liquids occurring in the dialect (in either stage) are in fact syllabic.

The consistent use of the liquid vowels is currently found only in speakers aged 20 or younger who have lived all their lives in Smetí. Older speakers show degrees of variation between the older and newer norms. Despite their surprise and bewilderment over how to explain the aberrations of the dialect, Czech scholars are now preparing an exhaustive survey of the speech of the population of the village (some 467 in all) covering everything from spectrographic analysis to quantative sociolinguistic surveys. Psammeticus Quarterly hopes to report further discoveries in future issues.

Comparative Charts of Vowels in Standard Czech and Smltl Dialect
 Standard     Smltl 1930s     Smltl 1988    Gloss     
 miš  miš  mļš MOUSE /i/
 ven  ven  vļn OUTSIDE /e/
 baba  baba  brbr OLD WOMAN /a/
 mnoho  mnoho  mnlhl MUCH /o/
 tušku  tušku  tlškl PENCIL (Acc) /u/
 vlk  vlk  vlk WOLF /l/
 prst  prst  prst FINGER /r/
 bít  bít  bļ́t TO BE /í/
 nést  nést  nļ́st NEW (Neuter) /é/
 žák  žák  žŕk PUPIL /á/
 tón  tón  tĺn TONE /ó/
 búx  búx  bĺx GOD /ú/
 sout  sót  sĺt COURT /ou/
 milí  mļ́  mļ́ DEAR  VlVft
 bilí  bļ́  bļ́ WHITE
 celí  cļ́  cļ́ ENTIRE
 daleko  dļ́ko  dļ́kl FAR
 ćelo  ćĺ  ćĺ BODY  VlVbk
 málo  mĺ  mĺ LITTLE
 pilu  pĺ  pĺ SAW (Acc)
 víla  vĺ  vĺ FAIRY
 nárot  nŕt  nŕt PEOPLE  VrV
 bori  bŕ  bŕ EVERGREENS
 darek  dŕk  dŕk GIFT
 hora  hŕ  hŕ MOUNTAIN
 bouře  bŗ́  bŗ́ STORM  VřV
 mařenka  mŗ́nka  mŗ́nkr MARY (Dim)
 jiří  ŗ́  ŗ́ GEORGE
 doktoři  doktŗ́  dlktŗ́ DOCTORS
 slišet  sļšet  sļšļt TO HEAR  lVft
 mislit  misļt  mļsļt TO THINK
 mlín  mļ́n  mļ́n MILL
 xlép  xļ́p  xļ́p BREAD
 hloupí  hĺpí  hĺpļ́ STUPID  lVbr
 lampa  lmpa  lmpr LAMP
 teplo  tepl  tļpl WARM
 blázen  bĺzen  bĺzļn FOOL
 hra  hr  hr GAME  rV
 brána  bŕna  bŕnr GATE
 sodrux  sodrx  sldrx COMRADE
 dobrí  dobŕ  dlbŕ GOOD
 bříza  bŗ́za  bŗ́zr BIRCH  řV
 řeka  ŗka  ŗkr RIVER
 tři  tŗ  tŗ THREE
 řada  ŗda  ŗdr ROW
 pitel  pitl  pļtl SACK  Vl
 stúl  stĺ  stĺ TABLE
 škol  škl  škl OF SCHOOLS
 dálka  dĺka  dĺkr DISTANCE
 papír  papŕ  prpŕ PAPER  Vr
 továrna  tovŕna  tlvŕnr FACTORY
 park  prk  prk PARK
 černí  črní  črnļ́ BLACK
 tvář  tvŗ́  tvŗ́ FACE  Vř
 kuřte  kŗte  kŗtļ SMOKE! (Imp)

Vox Populi—Letters to the Editor
The Effect of Coffee Consumption on Adults’ Average MLU at the Breakfast Table—Suzy X.
Ps. Q. Vol XVI, No 3 Contents