oa Verbreiding en oorzaak van h-procope en h-prothese in het Middelnederlands

The diffusion and cause of procope and prothesis of h in Middle Dutch

In this article we examine the geographical distribution of procope and prothesis of h in Dutch charters from the 13th and 14th centuries, and the frequency with which these phenomena occur, while trying to find patterns in the data. We then venture an explanation of why these phenomena originate in the Flemish dialects. Our hypothesis is that procope of h was induced by language contact between Dutch (Flemish) and French, due to the many bilinguals in Flanders. The contact situation triggered an already existing internal tendency by which h was lost or weakened before sonorants and glides to also affect prevocalic h.