Ik har, wy har(re): de r yn it notiidsparadigma fan ha(wwe) en yn dat fan dwaan, slaan en sjen

Abstract

This article deals with a variant of the verb hawwe 'to have', which has (just like variants of the verbs dwaan 'to do', slaan 'to hit' and sjen 'to see') in a part of the Frisian-speaking region a stem-final r in the first person singular (e.g. ik har 'I have') and in the plural forms of the present tense (e.g. wy har(re) 'we have'). It is shown that the r-variants are located in the north-eastern part of the Frisian-speaking area. The variant of the verb hawwe in the north-eastern dialects has, at least for a part of the Frisian-speakers, completely lost its original stem-final v, as is demonstrated by the fact that the gerund nowadays occurs as te ha in stead of te haw­wen. The present tense forms of the verbs dwaan, slaan and sjen also have variants without the original stem-final consonant /γ/ (e.g. ik/wy do ([do]) 'I/we do' instead of ik doch/wy dogge). Therefore, and due to the fact that the r-variants occur before word-initial vowels, it can be concluded that the r is inserted between adjacent vowels. Insertion of the r - that should be regarded as inversion of the r-deletion-rule - was made possible by the fact that the vowels /a/ and /o/ block the insertion of a homor­ganic glide. The r-variants of the verbs involved can nowadays be considered as lexicalized.