I have been meaning to post about the various dialects of Weddisch for awhile now and have just never gotten around to it. But, I wanted to actually get back into the swing of things and post a little bit about the dialect of Weddisch spoken in Hallann (Heligoland) known as Hawannis. I’m not sure how exactly to do this, so I decided to simply provide a description of a relevant feature then to provide an example from the main dialect that I primarily use, Estweddisch.
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I. The first difference I want to describe is how OE <ð> is handled. In Hawannis, all intervocalic /d/ weakened to /ð/ after which there are two changes: following a high vowel, /ð/ → /j/ while following a round vowel /ð/ → /w/. Sometime after these changes, all instances of /ð/ fortified to /d/ as in the other Weddisch dialects.
Ex. 1
Estweddisch: byde /bɛɪdə/ ‘to wait, to stay’
Hawannis: biðe /biːjə/
Ex. 2
Estweddisch: schruide /ʒɾœɪdə/ “to clothe, put on clothes, get dressed”
Hawannis: schrüüðe /ʒɹyːwə/
NB: schruide is archaic in the other dialects of Weddisch and typically only has a transitive, but not reflexive meaning something more like, “to give clothes to”. The common Estweddisch word here is simple klade /klaːdə/.
II. The next difference is that OE /w/ was lost before round vowels.
Ex. 3
Estweddisch: word /voɾd/ “word”
Hawannis: ord /ɔːd/
III. In Hawannis, /l/ is fully vocalized word finally and V _ C. I will not show an example of this, because it is pretty common in other dialects as well. However, Hawannis takes this a step further and intervocalic /l/ elides to /w/, this is most clearly seen in the name of the island of Heligoland itself.
Ex. 4
Estweddisch: Hallann /halanː/ “Heligoland”
Hawannis: Hawann /hawanː/
IV. Another key difference is that OE /iː yː/ do not diphthongize as they do in the other dialects. This can be seen in Examples 1 and 2 above.
V. Hawannis has some different vowel outcomes from Estweddisch. Firstly, OE /aː/ becomes /ɔː/ in closed syllables.
Ex. 5
Estweddisch: baan /baːn/ “bone”
Hawannis: boon /bɔːn/
VI. Simialrly, OE /æ æː/ are back in closed syllables to /a aː/ respectively.
Ex. 6
Estweddisch: bet /bɛt/ “bath”
Hawannis: bat /bat/
Ex. 7
Estweddisch: dead /dɛːd/ “deed”
Hawannis: daad /daːd/
VII. Otherwise, where Estweddisch has /ɛː/, Hawannis has raised this vowel slightly to /eː/.
Ex. 8
Estweddisch: sea /zɛː/ “sea”
Hawannis: see /zeː/
VIII. Whereas in the Estweddisch dialct, OE <eo ēo> became front rounded vowels, in Hawannis, these diphthongize to falling diphthongs /jɔ jɔː/. A similar process happens to the Estweddisch diphthong /ɛu/ which has become /ju/ in Hawannis.
Ex. 9
Estweddisch: dúep /dyːp/ “deep”
Hawannis: djoop /djɔːp/
Ex. 10
Estweddisch: mós /mœs/ “moss”
Hawannis: mjos /mjɔs/
Ex. 11
Estweddisch: mew /mɛu/ “seagull”
Hawannis: mju /mju/
IX. Unlike Estweddisch, Hawannis is non-rhotic and the loss of the rhotic triggered lengthening of the previous vowel. This can be seen in Example 3 above. Also unlike Estweddisch, the Hawannis rhotic is not a flap, but /ɹ/, which can be seen in Example 2.
X. Hawannis has an unusual outcome for OE /ʍ/. Where the other dialects universally have /v/ here, Hawannis unique in having /f/.
Ex. 12
Estweddisch: wel /vɛl/ “whale”
Hawannis: fau /fau/
XI. One of the defining features of the Weddisch dialects is that it has long nasal consonants which derived from homorganic nasal-stop sequences in OE. However, in Estweddisch these long nasals only occur word finally and the stop reappears medially. In Hawannis, these sequences are always long.
Ex. 13
Estweddisch: Hallandisch /halandɪʃ/ “Weddisch dialect of Heligoland”
Hawannis: Hawannis /hawanːɪs/
XII. Finally, word final /ʃ/ appears as /s/ in Hawannis, which can be seen in Example 13.
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In addition to the phonological differences, Hawannis has a few grammatical differences as well.
XII. First, it forms future tense verbs with viwe /vɪwə/ "will" plus the infinitive as opposed to Estweddisch wórde.
Ex. 14
Estweddisch: Ik wórt det bóek wryte. “I will write the book.”
Hawannis: Ik viw dat böök vriite.
XIII. Hawannis also does not follow the Northern Subject Rule.
Ex. 15
Estweddisch: De knev slieps. “The boy sleeps.” → Hi sliep. “He sleeps”
Hawannis: De knep sliips. → Hii sliips.
NB: Note here again a difference in the vocabulary between the dialects in the word for "boy".
XIV. Also quite unlike Estweddisch, Hawannis uses -(e)s as the default plural for most nouns. I will not show examples of this.
XV. Finally, the OE prefix <ge-> is preserved as <i-> /ɪ/ and is the normal way that past participles are formed as well as some verbs and nouns.
Ex. 16
Estweddisch: Ik haw tschiese ête. “I have eaten cheese.”
Hawannis: Ik hav tschiiz iete.
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Obviously, there are also differences in the orthography. Hawannis uses an inconsistent mixture of the main orthographies. Generally speaking, it relies heavily on the style used in the Wätsch dialects. However, it does not make use of <ä>. It also makes use of <ð> to indicate both /w/ and /j/ where appropriate, though this is often substituted for <w> and <j> respectively. It is the only dialect in which <w> is used for /w/ rather than /v/. There is also occassional used of <ll> to indicate /w/ as a form of historical spelling, but I opted not to use that convention here.