Consonant weakening in Florentine Italian: A cross-disciplinary approach to gradient and variable sound change

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Villafaña Dalcher
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Natural Class ◽  
Consonant Weakening ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
Italian Dialects

ABSTRACTFew acoustic studies of the intervocalic consonant lenition in central Italian dialects (a process known as Gorgia Toscana) have been undertaken. This study examines speech data from Florentine Italian in order to describe the process of Gorgia Toscana quantitatively and to assess the roles of physiological, perceptual, phonological, and social factors in the process. Results of acoustic and statistical analysis indicate gradient and variable output, with certain patterns occurring in the variation. The observations that emerge from the data cannot all be accounted for if Gorgia Toscana is characterized as a purely phonetic, phonological, or socially driven process of sound change. Rather, different aspects of the process are attributed to different motivators: gradience and velar preference to articulator movements, resistance of nonvelar lenition to perceptual constraints, targeting of a natural class and categorical weakening to abstract featural representations, and intersubject variation in velar lenition to external social factors.

scholarly journals An experimental study of the role of social factors in language change: The case of loanword adaptations

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiri Lev-Ari ◽  
Sharon Peperkamp
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Experimental Setting ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
The Creation

AbstractThere is great variation in whether foreign sounds in loanwords are adapted or retained. Importantly, the retention of foreign sounds can lead to a sound change in the language. We propose that social factors influence the likelihood of loanword sound adaptation, and use this case to introduce a novel experimental paradigm for studying language change that captures the role of social factors. Specifically, we show that the relative prestige of the donor language in the loanword’s semantic domain influences the rate of sound adaptation. We further show that speakers adapt to the performance of their ‘community', and that this adaptation leads to the creation of a norm. The results of this study are thus the first to show an effect of social factors on loanword sound adaptation in an experimental setting. Moreover, they open up a new domain of experimentally studying language change in a manner that integrates social factors.

scholarly journals Language Contact and Morphosyntactic Complexity: Evidence from German

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Maitz ◽  
Attila Németh
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Corpus Data

The article focuses on the hypothesis that the structural complexity of languages is variable and historically changeable. By means of a quantitative statistical analysis of naturalistic corpus data, the question is raised as to what role language contact and adult second language acquisition play in the simplification and complexification of language varieties. The results confirm that there is a significant correlation between intensity of contact and linguistic complexity, while at the same time showing that there is a need to consider other social factors, and, in particular, the attitude of a speech community toward linguistic norms.*

The role of educational factors in the development of lexical splits

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-72
Author(s):  
Yuhan Lin
Keyword(s):  
Education System ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Time Analysis ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Potential Factors ◽  
Statistical Results

Abstract While variationist literature on sound change has mostly focused on chain shifts and mergers, much less is written about splits (Labov, 1994, 2010). Previous literature shows that the acquisition of splits is unlikely unless motivated by social factors (Labov, 1994). The current study presents an apparent time analysis on the development of two phonemic splits, the initial /s/-/ʂ/ contrast and the initial /ɻ/-/l/ contrast, in Xiamen Mandarin, a contact variety of Putonghua, the official language in China. Statistical results showed similar patterns for both variables: younger speakers and female speakers are leading the change; the distinction between two phonemes are more distinct in wordlist than in the sociolinguistic interview. By examining the sociolinguistic situation in Xiamen, the paper discusses two potential factors that have led to these sound changes: the regional campaign for Putonghua and the emphasis of Pinyin, a phonetically-based orthography, in the education system.

Preference Laws and Gradient Change: Selected Developments in Romance

1987 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Natural Class ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
Natural Classes ◽  
Gradient Change

This paper has two purposes. The first is to focus attention on the gradient nature of sound change. This characteristic of sound change, although an important one, is often overlooked. King (1969: 122), for example, states: “Phonological changes tend to affect natural classes of sounds (p, t, k, high vowels, voiced stops) because rules that affect natural classes are simpler than rules that apply only to single segments.” This perspective obscures the generalization pattern of phonological processes, for a particular process typically affects a subsection of a natural class and then may (or may not) generalize to other members of the particular class or even to other classes. The second purpose of this paper is to account for selected cases of gradient phonological change in Italian and other Romance languages on the basis of a partial theory of syllable structure preferences.

Laryngeal-oral coarticulation in glottalized English plosives

1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Roach
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Related Phenomenon ◽  
Preliminary Attempt ◽  
Closed Glottis ◽  
Age And Sex ◽  
Made In

It has been observed by many writers on English phonetics that /p/, /t/, /k/ and /tʃ/ are frequently glottalized, i.e. produced with closed glottis. This observation raises a variety of interesting questions. Firstly, the phonological environments in which glottalization occurs have yet to be satisfactorily described; a preliminary attempt at a re-statement was made in Roach (1973) and a fuller account presented in Roach (1978). Secondly, it is of interest to study the articulatory mechanisms used in the production of glottalization, both from the point of view of finding out more about how laryngeal closures in speech are produced, and also with respect to the temporal organization of the laryngeal and supralaryngeal closures. Thirdly, since the incidence of glottalization (and of the closely related phenomenon of glottal replacement) appears to vary according to geographical and social factors, age and sex, it is of interest in dialectological and sociolinguistic studies of English. Finally, in a wider context, glottalization may be studied as being potentially an on-going sound change in English, and as a phenomenon that might possibly be linked with similar laryngeal articulations in other languages, e.g. the stød of Standard Danish and of West Jutland Danish.

Perceptions of Second Person Singular Pronoun Use in San Salvador, El Salvador

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Michnowicz ◽  
Soraya Place
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Second Person ◽  
San Salvador ◽  
Gender And Education ◽  
Pronoun Use

AbstractEl Salvador Spanish evidences a tripartite system of pronoun address, with one formal pronoun, usted, and two informal pronouns, tú and vos. The present study addresses attitudes toward pronoun use in San Salvador through the use of a linguistic questionnaire. The choice of pronoun is not dependent solely on the interlocutor whom the speaker is addressing, but also social factors, such as a speaker’s age, gender, and education. Statistical analysis demonstrates that tú is reserved for a few specific situations, and may represent an intermediate level of formality between usted and vos. Tú is reported more frequently by older and moderately educated speakers. Vos, however, is being advanced by younger, welleducated speakers in both frequency and into pragmatic areas that previously belonged to usted. In this way voseo in San Salvador may reflect increased informality and a higher use of regional forms reported in many Spanish varieties.

scholarly journals Weighing Psycholinguistic and Social Factors for Semantic Agreement in Dutch Pronouns

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-66
Author(s):  
Lien De Vos ◽  
Gert De Sutter ◽  
Gunther De Vogelaer
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Lexical Access ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Multivariate Statistical Analysis ◽  
Social Factor ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Syntactic Function ◽  
Pronominal Gender

Previous research has shown that Dutch pronominal gender is in a process of resemanticization: Highly individuated nouns are increasingly referred to with masculine and feminine pronouns, and lowly individuated ones with the neuter pronoun het/’t ‘it’, irrespective of the grammatical gender of the noun (Audring 2009). The process is commonly attributed to the loss of adnominal gender agreement, which is increasingly blurring distinctions between masculine and feminine nouns and, therefore, requires speakers to resort to semantic default strategies (De Vogelaer & De Sutter 2011). Several factors have been identified that influence the choice of semantic vis-à-vis lexical agreement, both linguistic and social. This article seeks to weigh the importance of both structural and social factors in pronominal gender agreement in Belgian Dutch, using the Belgian part of the Spoken Dutch Corpus. A multivariate statistical analysis reveals that most effects are structural, including noun semantics and the syntactic function of the antecedent and the pronoun, as well as the pragmatic status of the antecedent. The most important social factor is speech register. We argue that these effects support a psycholinguistic account in which resemanticization is seen as a change from below, caused by hampered lexical access to noun gender.

The /ay/ diphthong in a Martha's Vineyard community: What can we say 40 years after Labov?

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
RENÉE BLAKE ◽  
MEREDITH JOSEY
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Martha's Vineyard ◽  
Martha’S Vineyard ◽  
Internal And External Factors

This article revisits Labov's (1962, 1972a) germinal sociolinguistic work on Martha's Vineyard speech, providing a synchronic analysis of the /ay/ diphthong in words like right and time, and, in turn, a diachronic perspective on a sound change in progress. Labov observed that the first element of the /ay/ diphthong was raised in the speech of Martha's Vineyarders, particularly fishermen, and he correlated it with social factors like identity (i.e., local heritage) and resistance to summer visitors. The present authors provide a sociolinguistic analysis of /ay/ from a new set of data collected in a Martha's Vineyard speech community. The outcome suggests a change in the linguistic pattern observed by Labov, which the authors argue is linked to socio-economic restructuring and resulting ideological changes taking place on the island. The acoustic and social factors are analyzed using VARBRUL to show how /ay/ variation today patterns with various internal and external factors found to be salient in Labov's earlier study.

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