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The resolution of hiatus between a centring diphthong and a following vowel
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This section deals with how hiatus between a centring diphthong and a following vowel is resolved. The schwa-portion of the diphthong deletes. Between the remaining full vowel of the diphthong and the following vowel a glide is inserted, which ends up as the onset of the syllable headed by the vowel.

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Examples of the resolution of hiatus between a centring diphthong and a following vowel are given in (1):

1
Examples of the resolution of hiatus between a centring diphthong and a following vowel
breaen /brɪə+ən/ [(brɪ.)(jən)] rye breads
snieïch /sniə+əɣ/ [(sni.)(jəx)] snowy, snowlike
(dat) hie er (sein) /hiə ər/ [(hi.)(jər)] (that) had he (said)
(ik) hie em (sjoen) /hiə əm/ [(hi.)(jəm)] (I) had him (seen)
(dat) soe er (dwaan) /suə ər/ [(su.)(wər)] (that) would he (do)

Schwa is a virtually featureless, minimally specified vowel (see schwa's phonological representation); this means that it is unable to determine the quality of the glide which might be inserted here in order to resolve hiatus.

Glide insertion being impossible, the forms in (1) are subject to vowel degemination.

extra

This is an exceptional form of degemination: in the normal case it is only sequences of two adjacent identical consonants which are affected by this process (see the final Extra in the topic degemination).

For breaen /brɪə+ən/ rye breads, hie er /hiə+ər/ had he, hie em /hiə+əm/ had him, and soe er /suə+ər/ would he, schwa degemination yields the intermediate forms /brɪən/ [(brɪ)(ən)], /hiər/ [(hi)(ər)], /hiəm/ [(hi)(əm)], and /suər/ [(su)(ər)], with a sequence of two vowels in hiatus.

The most radical way of resolving hiatus here would be to contract the full vowel and schwa onto a single centring diphthong (thereby reducing the number of syllables by one). But this is not what is found. The forms at hand are realized as bisyllabic, so hie er, hie em, and soe er do not rhyme with the monosyllabic, simplex words hier /hiər/ hair; rent, lease, hiem /hiəm/ (farm) yard, and soer /suər/ sour. Diphthong formation in Frisian operates upon tautomorphemic vowel sequences which as such must be part of the underlying representation of morphemes (provided that the vowel sequences in question meet several co-occurrence constraints, see constraints on diphthongs). The sequence of a heteromorphemic (half) close vowel and schwa therefore is not realized as a (tautosyllabic) centring diphthong, but as a heterosyllabic sequence.

Hiatus is resolved here by the insertion of the glide [j] or [w], the choice of which is determined by the quality of the left-hand vowel (see also the resolution of hiatus between a monophthong and a following vowel). This results in a reasonably good syllable contact, whereas the rhyme of the left-most syllable is in accordance with the Rhyme Constraint in occupying two structural phonological positions.

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