Phonetic explanation without compromise

Diachronica ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliette Blevins
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Close Inspection ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Sound Changes

Blust (2005, 2007a, 2007b) questions the phonetic motivation of a number of well-attested sound changes. One sound change in this class is the purported case of stressed vowel syncope in Mussau, an Oceanic language (Blust 1984, 2001, 2007a). Regular syncopes typically target unstressed vowels. By contrast, loss of stressed vowels is difficult to motivate, due to their inherent prominence. Close inspection of Mussau historical phonology suggests that, at its origins, syncope was limited to unstressed vowels, with subsequent developments obscuring its original phonetic motivation. Under the proposed analysis, the Neogrammarian insistence on phonetically motivated sound change is maintained.

scholarly journals Hauchumsprung and the historical phonology of Greek *h

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-175
Author(s):  
Ollie Sayeed
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Recorded Sound ◽  
Sound Changes

Abstract Ancient Greek underwent a sporadic sound change that copied an *h from the second syllable of a word to the first syllable, applying when the first syllable was vowel-initial, and perhaps also when it was stop-initial; this complements the analyses proposed so far in Greek historical phonology, particularly Sturm (2016, 2017), in accounting for the various sources of Proto-Greek *h. This change, Hauchumsprung, is unusual among recorded sound changes for involving the copying of a consonant over intervening material. Hauchumsprung, the φρουρᾱ́ rule, and Grassmann’s Law can be unified as three different footprints of a single sound change: one that copied aspiration from the middle of a word to the beginning of a word in early Greek.

scholarly journals Diachronic Study of Phonological Changes in Tiv Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Terfa Aor ◽  
Torkuma Tyonande Damkor
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Language Growth ◽  
Observation Method ◽  
Phonological Change

All levels of language analysis are prone to changes in their phonology, morphology, graphology, lexis, semantics and syntax over the years. Tiv language is not an exception to this claim. This study investigates various aspects of phonological or sound changes in Tiv language. This paper therefore classifies sound changes in Tiv; states causes of sound changes in Tiv and explores implications of sound changes. The research design used in this paper is purposive sampling of relevant data. The instrument used in this paper is the observation method in which the author selected words that showed epenthesis, deletion and substitution. It has been noted that the use of archaic spellings in the Modern Tiv literatures shows their ancientness. Phonological change is not a deviation but a sign of language growth and changes in spellings result in changes in sounds. The author recommends that scholars should write papers or critical works on lexical/morphological, syntactic, semantic, graphological changes in Tiv language. Students should write projects, dissertations and theses on language change and diachronic linguistics. This study introduces Tiv historical linguistics and diachronic phonology which serve as catalysts for the study of Tiv language. The understanding of Tiv sound change provides students with a much better understanding of Tiv phonological system in general, of how Tiv phonology works and how the phonemes fit together

scholarly journals Distinctive Features Analysis of Foreign Language Borrowing Words in Javanese Language Found in Panjebar Semangat Magazine

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Linda Aprillianti
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Phonological Rule ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Phonological Rules ◽  
Phonological System

The Javanese language belongs to language which has unique phonological system. There are so many foreign language has influenced the development of Javanese. This study is intended to examine the sound change of borrowing word of foreign language in Javanese which is found in Panjebar Semangat magazine. The data is taken from Panjebar and checked using old Javanese dictionary. This study belongs to descriptive qualitative research and used Simak method and Non Participant Observation in collecting the data. The data analysis is done by using Padan method. The result of the study reveals three sound changes of vowels sound and four phonological rules. Then, there are four types of sound change and four phonological rule of consonant sound. The result showed that the sound change of borrowing word in Javanese is influenced by the differences of phonological system between Javanese and the foreign language.

Ordering paradoxes in phonology

1971 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. E. Newton
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Abstract Objects ◽  
Traditional Attitude ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Phonological Rules

1. It may be claimed that current views regarding the nature of sound change fall into two broad categories: the more traditional attitude would treat an individual sound change as a complex trend or process taking perhaps several generations to establish itself, and then retaining its activity over a long period of time; whence the characteristic concern of classical historical linguistics with the establishment of absolute and relative termini post and ante quern, i More recently adherents of the generative–transformational school have interpreted sound changes as readjustments in the system of phonological rules; thus Postal (1968: 270) claims:‘What really changes is not sounds but grammars. And grammars are abstract objects – sets of rules represented in human organisms.’

Women and sound change: Conservative and innovative behavior by the same speakers

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. Maclagan ◽  
Elizabeth Gordon ◽  
Gillian Lewis
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Innovative Behavior ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Community People

In this article we address Labov's claim that sound changes that are not stigmatized are led especially by young women who are the “movers and shakers” in the community, people with energy and enterprise. Such young women, at the same time, are conservative with respect to sound changes or stable linguistic variables that are stigmatized. We investigated this claim by comparing the pronunciation of the non-stigmatized front vowels /I/, /ε/, and /æ/ with that of the stigmatized diphthongs /ai/ and /a[inverted omega]/ in New Zealand English. When we considered the pronunciation of each variable, the young women did not unequivocally support Labov's claim. However, when we examined the behavior of individual speakers across the two sets of variables, Labov's claim was supported. This result leads us to emphasize the importance of considering the behavior of individual speakers in a more holistic way rather than focusing only on the averaged data for single variables.

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.

Areal sound change and the distributional typology of affricate richness in Eurasia

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 562-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Nikolaev ◽  
Eitan Grossman
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
European Area ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Western Eurasia ◽  
Phonological Typology

Abstract This paper makes a contribution to phonological typology by investigating the distribution of affricate-rich languages in Eurasia. It shows that affricate-rich and affricate-dense languages cluster areally within Eurasia and have area-specific histories. In particular, the affricate-rich areas of western Eurasia – a ‘European’ area and a Caucasian area – are not the result of contact-induced sound changes or borrowing, while the two affricate-rich areas of eastern Eurasia – the Hindukush area and the Eastern Himalayan area – are the result of contact. Specifically, affricate-dense areas depend on the emergence of retroflex affricates. Moreover, languages outside these affricate-dense areas tend to lose retroflex affricates.

scholarly journals Footnotes on a Parthian sound change

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Korn
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Consonant Cluster ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Middle Persian

AbstractThe treatment of Proto-Iranian*θw(PIE *t) is one of the isoglosses distinguishing Middle Persian from Parthian and thus important for Western Iranian dialectology. The re-discussion of the Parthian development of this consonant cluster by Nicholas Sims-Williams presents a welcome opportunity for some notes on the matter. I will argue that there is some additional evidence in favour of his suggestion that the Parthian result is not-f-as previously assumed, but a consonant cluster. I will also suggest a modification of the steps that the development takes. The Middle Persian development of*θwas well as some related issues of historical phonology and Pth. orthography and Western Ir. are likewise discussed.

Diachronic effects of rhinoglottophilia, symmetries in sound change, and the curious case of Basque

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Igartua
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

The particular affinity linking glottality and nasality to each other, a connection which is grounded both on articulatory and acoustic bases, seems to be responsible for various phonetic phenomena in different languages. In sound changes associated to what has been termed rhinoglottophilia (Matisoff 1975), the two logically possible diachronic pathways show up: from glottality to secondary nasalization, on the one hand, and from nasality to secondary laryngealization, on the other. The innovations concerned can thus be considered symmetrical, a feature that is rarely found in sound change. This paper first reviews the evidence at our disposal for positing a class of replacive phonetic changes caused by rhinoglottophilia, and then argues for an explanation of the diachronic correspondence n > h in the history of the Basque language based on the (primarily acoustic) effects of this specific connection between glottality (more specifically, aspiration) and nasality.

scholarly journals Mergers in Bardi: contextual probability and predictors of sound change

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Babinski ◽  
Claire Bowern
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Minimal Pair ◽  
Functional Load ◽  
Crucial Question ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Pair Density ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Australian Languages

AbstractA crucial question for historical linguistics has been why some sound changes happen but not others. Recent work on the foundations of sound change has argued that subtle distributional facts about segments in a language, such as functional load, play a role in facilitating or impeding change. Thus not only are sound changes not all equally plausible, but their likelihood depends in part on phonotactics and aspects of functional load, such as the density of minimal pairs. Tests of predictability on the chance of phoneme merger suggest that phonemes with low functional load (as defined by minimal pair density) are more likely to merge, but this has been investigated only for a small number of languages with very large corpora and well attested mergers. Here we present work suggesting that the same methods can be applied to much smaller corpora, by presenting the results of a preliminary exploration of nine Australian languages, with a particular focus on Bardi, a Nyulnyulan language from Australia’s northwest. Our results support the hypothesis that the probability of merger is higher when phonemes distinguish few minimal pairs.

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