Anderhalve eeuw Zwols. Vocaalveranderingsprocessen in de periode 1838-1972

PhD ceremony: Ms. P.C.G.M. Bloemhoff-de Bruijn, 14.30 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Anderhalve eeuw Zwols. Vocaalveranderingsprocessen in de periode 1838-1972

Promotor(s): prof. H.W.H. Niebaum

Faculty: Arts

Philomène Bloemhoff-de Bruijn’s thesis is about the vowel changes that have taken place within the language of the city of Zwolle, the capital city of the province of Overijssel, over a period of 150 years.

The research is based upon 19th century publications in this urban dialect. The language of these older texts has been compared to the dialect which is used nowadays. Especially many vowel changes can be stated. Some of them already took place in the course of the 19th century, and can quite exactly be dated, for example: zeen ‘see’ that changed into zien, and waor ‘where’ into wöör.

First, other types of changes are discussed: words and expressions became out of date, certain word forms disappeared and meanings changed. Striking are the changes within the system of the personal and the possessive pronouns. In the following chapters eight vowel changes are described. After that some aspects of the changes are examined more thoroughly. In the last chapter conclusions are drawn.In principal, all the vowel changes are natural and regular processes. Some natural processes are more or less influenced by the standard language, but it did not cause them. The different processes have hardly effected or caused each other.

The still uncompleted vowel developments are processes that spread lexically gradual.

There is no positive correlation between the frequency of words and their undergoing the changes. On the contrary: frequent words clearly lag behind in several vowel changes which are still going on.