Guido Reitz †

Reihenspaltung im Moselfränkischen und ihr Verhältnis zur Rheinischen Akzentuierung

bearbeitet von Alexander Werth

This contribution examines the relationship between vowel quality and tone-accent distribution in the Moselle-Franconian dialects. It presents for the first time data from the Rule B tone-accent dialects of the Hunsrück mountains that, for this area at least, disprove the hypothesis of a tone-accent induced phonemic split (Reihenspaltung) in the Moselle Franconian phonological system. Existing research literature is used to demonstrate that the links between tone accents and vowel quality (especially the degree of opening) vary greatly in recent Moselle-Franconian dialects. The article goes on to explain this variety and the (in comparison to the main region) inverted distribution in the Hunsrück mountains in particular in terms of diachronic developments. It is argued that allophonic differences in vowel length in the pretonemic phase (i. e., prior to the origin of the tone accents) in the Hunsrück dialects led to differences in sonority and then to changes in the vowel system, affecting diphthongs in particular. In contrast, in the dialects of what became the Rule A area (and in part in the Rule B area in the Westerwald), it was the emergent tone accents themselves which caused shifts in the vowel system – producing a Reihenspaltung that phonetically enhanced and phonologically optimized the morphological contrast.

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