Re: Somewheres

On Tue, 3 Sep 2024, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:

I don't remember all the examples, but when the people in
de.etc.sprache.deutsch write spoken German, they write "ham" statt
"haben" - eh, in stead of, that is.

This is a very natural process which took place in many areas in Germany,
both in the S and in the E; I am not sure whether in the SW as well.

Step 1: replace -en by syllabic -n (still same number of syllables):

  haben → habn, leben → lebn, kommen → kommn, schaffen → schaffn,
  reden → redn, sagen → sagn, packen → packn, hängen → hängn [hɛŋn]

Step 2: assimilate this -n to become homorganic with the preceding sound:

  habn → habm, lebn → lebm, kommn → kommm [kɔmː], schaffn → schaffm,
  redn = redn, sagn → sagŋ, packn → packŋ, [hɛŋn] → [hɛŋː]

  The long nasals allow to distinguish standard "kommen/hängen" from
  standard "komm!/häng!".

Step 3: merge the two final consonants if the first one is a lax plosive:

  habm → ham, lebm → leːm, redn → reːn, sagn → saːŋ

This explains "haben/leben" becoming "ham/leːm" which appear in
colloquial speech nearly all over Germany.

Especially Bavarian has another interesting feature: where step 3
makes no difference, the final nasal is often changed to [a], in
particular, long nasals must be removed.

Step 4 (Bavarian):

   kommm [kɔmː] → kemma (mand.), packŋ → packa (opt.), [hɛŋː] → henga (mand.)

Of course, the extent to which these steps apply is very different across
Germany. If step 1 is omitted, the language sounds overly distinct, and step
2 as well sounds natural in colloquial speech. I would not hesitate to teach
foreigners to apply these two steps as normal pronunciation.

--
Helmut Richter