TheEifel rule (German:Eifeler RegelGerman pronunciation:[ˈaɪfəlɐˈʁeːɡl̩],Luxembourgish:Eifeler[ˈɑɪ̯fəlɐ] orÄifler Reegel[ˈæːɪ̯flɐˈʀeːʑəl]) is aphonological phenomenon consisting in thedeletion of morpheme-final[n] in certain contexts, originally documented in the dialects of theEifel region in the far west ofGermany[1] during the late 19th century. This is asandhi phenomenon and may or may not be reflected in spelling, depending on the language concerned.
The Eifel rule is pervasive inLuxembourgish as-n is a common ending for verbs, plural nouns, inflected adjectives and function words. Since Luxembourgish spelling strives for phonetic accuracy,n-deletion is also reflected in the standard orthography. The rule can be described as follows:
In the suffix-(e)n or-nn, as well as in function words (e.g. articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjuctions, adverbs), morpheme-final /n/ is deleted before a consonant both word-finally and word-internally, except beforehomorganic (i.e.apical)noncontinuants, i.e. /n t d ts tʃ dʒ/, and /h/. For example:
Word-finally: den + Ball → de Ball ("the ball"), wann + mer ginn → wa mer ginn ("when we go")
/n/: den Noper (“the neighbour”), vun New York (“from New York”)
/t/: den Tuerm ("the tower")
/d/: den Dag (“the day”), hien drénkt ("he drinks"), fënnefandrësseg ("thirty-five")
/ts/ (possible spellings includez, c orts): den Zuch (“the train”), en Cent (“a cent”), den Cäsar (“Caesar [Julius Caesar]”), den Tsunami (“the tsunami”), Gromperenzalot ("potato salad")
/tʃ/ (possible spellings includetsch, ch orc): an Tschechien (“in Czechia”), den Chip (“the chip [microchip]”), den Churchill (“Churchill”), den Cello (“the cello”)
/dʒ/ (possible spellings includedsch, j org): den Dschungel (“the jungle”), en Job (“a job”), den Jazz (“jazz”), vun Jamaika (“from Jamaica”), den George Washington (“George Washington”)
/h/: den Hond (“the dog”), wann hie schléift ("when he sleeps")
Before a pause, or in spelling before a punctuation mark:
Ech hunn (wéi gëschter) vill geschafft. ("I have (like yesterday) done a lot of work.")
Deletion is optional before the following function words beginning withs: the prounounssi/se/s' (“she/her; they/them”),sech (“himself/herself/itself/oneself; themselves”),säin (“his” [masculine singular]),seng (“his” [feminine singular or all genders plural]) and the adverbsou (“so”).
Note that the prefixeson- andin- are not affected by the Eifel rule, e.g.onvergiesslech ("unforgettable"),inkompetent(“incompetent”). At the same time, certain content words do undergon-deletion, e.g.Wäi(n) (wine),Stee(n) (stone),geschwë(nn) (soon).
When final-n is dropped from a plural noun whose singular form ends in-e (which occurs mostly in loanwords), adiaeresis must be used to distinguish the plural, e.g.: Chance (singular[ˈʃɑ̃ːs]), Chancen (plural, full form[ˈʃɑ̃ːsən]), Chancë (plural + Eifel rule[ˈʃɑ̃ːsə]).
There are several ways to write Colognian, and the Eifel rule may be reflected in writing when it follows phonetic reality, but more often is not, since the majority of people do not write very phonetically.
In comparison to standard German, Colognian is often described as having historicallyomitted the trailingn. This is oversimplified, and not always true. The Colognian version ofliaison sometimes inserts ann. Colognian multisyllabic base words or lexemes regularly drop "-n" when some related languages, such asStandard German and Low German (but not Dutch and Limburgish) do not. Liaison is often optional, and there is hardly any liaison on stressed words within a sentence. For example, with the wordsbovve (up, up there) anden (in, into), one may build the phrase:bovve en der Schaaf (up there into the cupboard) which depending on stress and voice flow inside a complete sentence is spoken as either[ˈbɔ̂vəʔendɐˈʃâːf] or[ˈbɔ̂vən‿endɐˈʃâːf].
The general rule is that monosyllabic words most often keep their trailingn, while otherwise-en endings are transformed to-e in Colognian unless the following word starts with aglottal stop, adental consonant, a vowel, or anh, and neither of the two words is being stressed inside the sentence.[3] There are exceptions, the most notable being that speakers do not useliaison even if they could when speaking very slowly or solemnly, e.g. preaching or praying.
High Franconian is a transitional dialect group between theRhine Franconian dialects of West Central German to the North and theSwabian dialects of Alemannic to the South. The High Franconian group divides intoSouth Franconian andEast Franconian. N-apocope can be documented in the following sentence from Standard German:
Die Kinder halte-n die Äpfel fest. "The children hold on to the apples."
The comparison with the above mentioned dialects demonstrates:[4]
The Eifel rule (Alemannic n-apocope) applies in all variants ofAlemannic in the same fashion as described for Luxembourgish and is subject to the same exceptions.[5] The earliest report on the phenomenon in Alemannic goes back to 1881.[6]
Certain southern and southeastern dialects ofLow Franconian (that is,Dutch) have a similar phenomenon. It is notable inLimburgish and some areas ofBrabantian, and is called the "bdht-vowel-rule". Final -n is also deleted in these dialects, except when followed by b, d, h, t or a vowel, in case of a masculine noun. This is similar to the Eifel rule.
^Jochen Conzelmann,Erläuterungen zur mittelhochdeutschen Grammatik, Freiburg: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, 2011.[1]
^see page 33, Variable 8, in Christa Bhatt, Markus Lindlar (editors):Alles Kölsch. Eine Dokumentation der aktuellen Stadtsprache in Köln. Herausgegeben von derAkademie för uns kölsche Sproch der SK Stiftung Kultur der Stadtsparkasse Köln in Zusammenarbeit mit demLandschaftsverband Rheinland - Amt für rheinische Landeskunde, Bonn - 268 pages, 4 CDs, Bouvier Verlag, Bonn, 1998.ISBN3-416-02847-3
^Hanna Heidt,Erinnerungen an die Vergangenheit, Schwanen Stutensee-Staffort. Cf. Alfred Klepsch, Fränkische Dialekte, in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, 2012.[2]
^Peter Auer, "Co-occurrence restrictions between linguistic variables: A case for social dialectology, phonological theory and variation studies", in; Frans Hinskens & Roeland Van Hout (eds),Variation, Change and Phonological Theory, John Benjamins Publishing, 1997, pp. 69-99; Nübling, Damaris & Renate Schrambke, "Silben- versus akzentsprachliche Züge in germanischen Sprachen und im Alemannischen",Alemannisch im Sprachvergleich, Elvira Glaser et al., pp. 281-320, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2004; Schwarz, Christian & Tobias Streck, "Neue Ansätze zur Beschreibung phonologischen Wandels in den alemannischen Dialekten Südwestdeutschlands: n-Tilgung und Realisierung von mhd. ô",Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik - Beiheft 141, 2010, pp. 203-218.
^Karl Weinhold,Kleine mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1881, p. 29.[3]
Cédric Krummes (2006), Alan Scott (ed.), "'Sinn si' or 'Si si'? Mobile 'n' Deletion in Luxembourgish.",Papers in Linguistics from the University of Manchester : Proceedings of the 15th Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics, 3 March 2006 (in German), Manchester: University - School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
François Schanen; Jacqui Zimmer (2006), "Chapitre 8",1,2,3 Lëtzebuergesch Grammaire (in German), vol. Band 3: L'orthographe, Esch-sur-Alzette: Schortgen éditions, pp. 86–90
Hermann Palms (2011),Mir schwäzze Platt : Dialekt und Grammatik untersucht am Steffeler Platt (in German), Steffeln: Eifelverein-Ortsgruppe Steffeln
