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    Intervocalic /d/ and /r/
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    The voiced alveolar plosive /d/ may alternate with /r/, provided it is intervocalic and in the onset position of an unstressed syllable. This so-called ' /d/-rhotacism' has never been a productive phonological process, so only a small number of words have been affected by it.

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    The voiced alveolar plosive /d/ may alternate with /r/, provided it is intervocalic and in the onset position of an unstressed syllable. This ' /d/-rhotacism' is not, and has never been, an overly productive process and only a small number of words have been affected by it (see Veenstra (1989) and Veenstra (1991)). Some examples are given in (1):

    1
    Examples of words affected by /d/-rhotacism
    Fedde / Fêde /fɛ(:)də/ [a men's name] ~ Ferre / Fêre
    noadich /noədəɣ/ necessary ~ noarich
    nuddel /nødəl/ needle ~ nurrel
    sûkelade /sukəla:də/ chocolate ~ sûkelarje
    pudding /pødɪŋ/ pudding ~ purring
    pûde /pudə/ bag; sack ~ pûre
    wjûde /vjuəde/ to weed ~ wjûre

    In some words, though, /r/ has more or less pushed /d/ aside:

    2
    Words in which /r/ has pushed /d/ aside
    arich /a:rəɣ/ nice ~ aardich /a:dəɣ/
    hâre /hɔ:rə/ to keep; to hold ~ hâlde /hɔ:də/
    siere /siərə/ to boil; to cook ~ siede /siədə/
    starich /sta:rəɣ/ slow; calm, steady ~ stadich /sta:dəɣ/
    wurre /vørə/ to become ~ wurde /vødə/

    With the exception of noarich and sûkelarje, the forms with r(r) in the right-hand column of (1) are not recognized in the official spelling, which also holds for those in the left-hand column of (2). This is indicative of the fact that the form with /d/ is felt as 'basic'.

    On the face of it, aardich is a complex word, consisting of the noun aard /a:d/ nature and the adjectivizing suffix -ich /-əɣ/ (see -ich). Its meaning, nice, however, cannot be understood as compositional, so aardich is only a formally complex word. This is even clearer for stadich, since the part stad- /sta:d/ no longer is an independent word of Frisian.

    extra

    The element -aardich occurs as the final part of synthetic compounds, like the following:

    i
    eigenaardich /aiɣən+a:d+əɣ/ peculiar [(lit.: of an own nature)]
    goedaardich /ɡuəd+a:d+əɣ/ good-natured, kind-hearted; benign [(lit.: of a good nature)]
    nuveraardich /ny:vər+a:d+əɣ/ strange, odd [(lit.: of a strange, odd nature)]
    wreedaardich /vre:d+a:d+əɣ/ cruel [(lit.: of a cruel nature)]

    With the possible exception of eigenaardich, the pronunciation of the part -aardich in these words is [-a:dəx] and not [a:rəx]. The same holds for folksaardich /[[[folk+s]+a:d]+əɣ]/ characteristic of the common people, a derivation from the compound folksaard /[[folk+s]+aard]/ national character. It should be noted that the above words do have a compositional meaning.

    The verbs hâlde to keep; to hold, siede to boil; to cook, and wurde to become have acquired a new, /r/-final, present tense stem: /hɔ:r/, /siər/, and /vør/. These strong(/irregular) verbs have a separate past tense stem and past participle. In case of siede and wurde, the past tense stem may also end in /r/ − waar /va:r/ and sear /sɪər/, respectively. There are several indications for these /r/-final stems, which are listed below:

    • /r/ shows up in sentence-final position, as in
      3
      Omdat ik net serieus nommen wur [vør] because I not seriously taken am Because I am not taken seriously
      Dat ik it hjir net mear úthâr [ythɔ:r] that I it here no more out hold That I cannot take it any longer here
      Dat er net goed waar [va:r] that he not good became That he became unwell
      Dat se altyd it iten sear [sɪər] that she always the food cooked That she always did the cooking
    • /r/ shows up in inflected forms, like
      4
      Wy hâre [hɔ:rə] We keep; we hold
      Hja siere [siərə] jûn it iten they cook tonight the food They do the cooking tonight
      De boeken wurre [vørə] kreas ynbûn the books are neatly bound The books are neatly bound
      It foel net ta om jin goed te hâren [hɔ:rən] it fell not to for oneself good to hold It was not easy to keep a straight face; to bear up well
      Wy waren /va:r+ən/ [va:rn̩] dêr let en set we were there paid attention to and put We were treated courteously there
      Wy searen /sɪər+ən/ [sɪərn̩] dêr ús eigen iten we cooked there our own food We cooked our own food there
      Hy is net goed wurren /vør+ən/ [vørn̩] he is not good become He has become unwell
    • These stems are not followed by the clitic er (of the personal pronoun third person singular masculine hij/ he), but by its allomorph der /dər/ (see Personal pronoun clitics). This prevents the forbidden sequence [*rər] from arising (see /d/-insertion in the sequences /nər/, /lər/, and /rər/). So, became he is either waar der [va:dr̩] (< /va: der/ < /va:r der/) or waard er [va:tr̩] (< /va:t er/ < /va:d er/). In waar der, stemfinal /r/ is deleted before clitic-initial /d/ (see /r/-deletion in complex words derived with a suffix which contains the vowel schwa); in waard er stem-final /d/ undergoes Final Devoicing, before the clitic prosodically integrates with the verb.

    These verbs, however, still also have a stem ending in /d/. Firstly, inflected forms with [-d-] occur alongside the above forms with [-r-], as the examples in (6) make clear:

    5
    Examples of the above verbs with [-d-]
    Wy hâlde [hɔ:də] We keep; we hold
    Hja siede [siədə] jûn it iten they cook tonight the food They do the cooking tonight
    De boeken wurde [vødə] noch kreas ynbûn the books are still neatly bound The books are still neatly bound
    It foel net ta om jin goed te hâlden [hɔ:dən] it fell not to for oneself good to keep It was not easy to keep a straight face; to bear up well

    Secondly, /d/ shows up in complex forms, like those in (7):

    6
    Examples of complex forma in which the above verbs figure
    hâlding /hɔ:d+ɪŋ/ position; pose; attitude
    behâldend /[[bə+hɔ:d]+ənd]/ conservative
    oanhâldend /[[oən+hɔ:d]ənd]/ continuous, persistent
    izerhâldend /i:zər+hɔ:d+ənd/ ferriferous
    ôfhâldich /[[ɔ:+hɔ:d]+əɣ]/ reserved, distant

    The above words are realized with [-d-]; a realization with [-r-] sounds weird.

    All in all, it seems plausible to assume that the forms with /d/ are basic. The relation between forms with /d/ and /r/ can be expressed as follows:

    /d/ ~ /r/ relation
    Figure 1
    [click image to enlarge]

    extra

    For many speakers, the verb riere /riər+ə/ to stir has become riede /riəd+ə/. It is noted in Sipma (1913:28,§115,point 3,note) that roere /ruər+ə/ to move; to touch has the variant roede /ruəd+ə/. This vacillation points to the fact that there is a certain awareness of a relationship between (intervocalic) /d/ and /r/ on the part of the speakers of Frisian.

    References
    • Sipma, Pieter1913Phonology and Grammar of Modern West FrisianLondon, New YorkOxford University Press
    • Veenstra, Durk H1989/d/-rotasisme yn it Frysk, Fonetyske en fonologyske aspekten fan de oergong ynterfokalyske /d/ > /r/Tydskrift foar Fryske Taaklunde541-67
    • Veenstra, Durk H1991Ien en oar oer de dialektgeografyske kant fan /d/-rotasismeTydskrift foar Fryske Taalkunde61-27
    About this article
    Author(s): Willem Visser
    Category: Frisian Phonology
    Keywords: /d/-rhotacism
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
    version editor(s) date remarks
    1.0 Willem Visser December 2015
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