Sprachverlust und Halbsprecher einer sterbenden Sprache

Abstract

Zusammenfassung Dying languages are often characterised by attrition of structural features and large scale borrowing from competing dominant languages. However, these characteristics are difficult to interpret when the variety is only scarcely attested (Trümmersprache) and documented by non-native speakers, who learned the language from native speakers who were themselves, potentially, only imperfect learners. The East Frisian Harlingerland dialect is a case in point. It is attested only in a booklet from the late 17th century (1691) by the local vicar Johannes Cadovius-Müller, who was not a native speaker of Frisian. He uses the two infinitive markers of Frisian in an unhistorical way. This study seeks to understand how this usage arose. It is hypothesised that the last generation of dialect speakers developed a synchronic phonological rule for the distribution of the two infinitive markers based on vowel harmony, which was then partly misrepresented due to Cadovius-Müller's imperfect learning.