Stop codas in Old Chinese and Proto Sino-Tibetan

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenqing Song
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Structural Description ◽  
Old Chinese ◽  
Loan Words ◽  
Change Mechanism ◽  
World Languages ◽  
Diffusion Analysis ◽  
Lexical Diffusion ◽  
Phonological Reconstruction

Reconstruction studies of Old Chinese (OC hereafter) and Proto Sino-Tibetan (PST hereafter) have yielded numerous significant discoveries related to the phonological histories of these two ancient languages. Despite recent advancements into OC and PST phonological histories, a few mysteries remain yet unsolved. One such mystery, the ‘stop coda’ problem, is as hotly debated now as it was when it was first raised seventy years ago. This long-running debate focuses on the existence and identity of the ‘stop codas’ in OC and in its parent language, PST. One reason why this debate has failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion is that the reconstruction methodology is limited, which assumes the Neogrammarian law of sound change. This law holds that sound change occurs without exception in every form that meets the structural description. Although this law applies to many sound changes in myriad world languages, it is not the only possible pathway of sound change. In this paper, I will argue that the key to the ‘stop-coda’ problem of OC belongs to another sound change type — lexical diffusion. The organization of the paper is as follows. In Part One, I will introduce the background of the debate over the ‘stop codas’ in OC. Part Two reviews previous opposing analyses of the ‘stop coda’ debate. Part Three details my proposal for a lexical diffusion analysis of the ‘stop coda’ problem based on internal evidence in Chinese. Part Four investigates the problem using the Comparative Method based on external evidence from Tibetan and loan words from Chinese to Sino-Japanese. In Part Five, I will present my solution to the ‘stop coda’ problem, which is based on the analysis in the two preceding sections. Finally, in Part Six, I will discuss the general methodology of phonological reconstruction in light of the sound change mechanism.

scholarly journals Bantu Lexical Reconstruction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Bostoen ◽  
Yvonne Bastin
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistic ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Intermediate Step ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Phonological Reconstruction ◽  
The Relationship

Lexical reconstruction has been an important enterprise in Bantu historical linguistics since the earliest days of the discipline. In this chapter a historical overview is provided of the principal scholarly contributions to that field of study. It is also explained how the Comparative Method has been and can be applied to reconstruct ancestral Bantu vocabulary via the intermediate step of phonological reconstruction and how the study of sound change needs to be completed with diachronic semantics in order to correctly reconstruct both the form and the meaning of etymons. Finally, some issues complicating this type of historical linguistic research, such as “osculance” due to prehistoric language contact, are addressed, as well as the relationship between reconstruction and classification.

Lexical diffusion as a factor of phonetic change: The case of Modern French nasal vowels

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Berit Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Nasal Vowels ◽  
Lexical Diffusion

The present study explores the notion of lexical diffusion in relation to an ongoing change in Modern French nasal vowels. Data are interviews with 42 Parisians, recorded in 1972–74 and 1989–93. We start with the notion that sound change ought to be regular, according to the classification of Labov (1994): that is, being a phonetically gradual change, it should be lexically abrupt. The first part of our analysis, which includes more than 10,000 nasal vowel tokens, seems to indicate an influence of factors compatible with the hypothesis of regular sound change (i.e., stress and phonetic surroundings). A closer look at the vowel /[vowel symbol]/, however, reveals an independent lexical and grammatical conditioning, one not entirely explicable in terms of stress or phonetics. As other studies have shown (Krishnamurti, 1998; Yaeger-Dror, 1996), gradual phonetic change might show lexical irregularities, a fact which calls for a revision of Labov's classification.

Regularity of sound change through lexical diffusion: A study of s > h > in Gondi dialects

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bh. Krishnamurti
Keyword(s):  
Diffusion Model ◽  
Central India ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
The West ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Normal Expectation ◽  
Lexical Diffusion ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Theoretical Proposal ◽  
Dravidian Language

ABSTRACTGondi is a Dravidian language spoken by 2.2 million speakers (Census of India 1981) in the mountains and forests of four adjacent states in central India. Gondi is a chain of several dialects, some of which, at distant points, are perhaps not mutually intelligible. A major dialect division is provided by a two-step sound change: s- > h- in the west, north, and northwest and h- > - in the south and southeast. The present article studies this two-step sound change, which is still in progress, and establishes two facts. First, contrary to the normal expectation that this sound change would be phonetically gradual and lexically abrupt (Neogram-marian type), there is evidence that it has been lexically gradual and perhaps also phonetically gradual (lexical diffusion). Second, phonetic gradualness and regularity in implementation of sound change are properties not incompatible with the mechanism of lexical diffusion. Labov's observation that s > h > has not been reported as a lexically diffused change in many quantitative studies of Portuguese and Spanish (1981) finds a clear exception in Gondi. Under the lexical diffusion model, the regularity of a sound change is defined as the final outcome in a three-stage change of the relevant lexicon: unchanged (u), variant (u ˜ c), and changed (c). If the entire eligible lexicon passed from u to c through u ˜ c, the change would become regular. If all u ˜ c became c and for some reason no item under u became u ˜ c, the sound change would die prematurely, since the variant stage which provided the rule for the innovation would be absent. Since a regular sound change can result from either the Neogrammarian model or the lexical diffusion model, Labov's (1994:542–543) theoretical proposal of complementarity between the kinds of changes resulting from the two mechanisms calls for more studies of sound change in progress to decide the issue.

scholarly journals The Reconstruction of Etymon Proto of Sambori and Teta Isolects Spoken in Bima Regency-NTB-Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
I Gede Budasi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Phonological System

The previous studies that describe the phonological system of the isolects and the description of their differing and uniting linguistic features have not yet answered the doubts among Indonesian linguists whether or not the  Proto of Sambori-Teta (PSm-Te)  were descended from Proto Austronesia (PAn). Thus, this article aims to describe the interrelatedness of the two protoes and to describe the types of sound changes from the PAn to PSm-Te etymons.  This descriptive study applied a comparative method by implementing bottom-up and top-down analysis in reconstructing the PSm-Te. The linguistic features as the evidence of the interrelatedness of the two protoes were identified and analyzed using sound change theories. This study found 1691 (99.35%)  definitive etymons of PSm-Te among 1702 etymons of Sambori and Teta Isolects identified in this study, and the types of sound change from PAn to PSm-Te etymons showed addition, deletion, metathesis, diphthongization, fusion, fortition, lenition, fronting, and backing. The definitive PSm-Te and the identified types of sound changes can be used as the linguistic evidence to determine that PAn descend PSm-Te. Therefore Sambori and Teta isolects reflect PSm-Te.

scholarly journals THE ARABIC COGNATES OR ORIGINS OF PLURAL MARKERS IN WORLD LANGUAGES: A RADICAL LINGUISTIC THEORY APPROACH

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 144
Author(s):  
Zaidan Ali Jassem
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
World Population ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
World Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
World Languages

This paper traces the Arabic origins of "plural markers" in world languages from a radical linguistic (or lexical root) theory perspective. The data comprises the main plural markers like cats/oxen in 60 world languages from 14 major and minor families- viz., Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Afro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Turkic, Mayan, Altaic (Japonic), Niger-Congo, Bantu, Uto-Aztec, Tai-Kadai, Uralic, and Basque, which constitute 60% of world languages and whose speakers make up 96% of world population. The results clearly show that plural markers, which are limited to a few markers in all languages comprised of �s/-as/-at, -en, -im, -a/-e/-i/-o/-u, and �, have true Arabic cognates with the same or similar forms and meanings, whose differences are due to natural and plausible causes and different routes of linguistic change. Therefore, the results reject the traditional classification of the Comparative Method and/or Family Tree Model of such languages into separate, unrelated families, supporting instead the adequacy of the radical linguistic theory according to which all world languages are related to one another, which eventually stemmed from a radical or root language which has been preserved almost intact in Arabic as the most conservative and productive language. In fact, Arabic can be safely said to be the radical language itself for, besides other linguistic features, sharing the plural cognates in this case with all the other languages alone.Keywords: Plurality, language families and relationships, radical world language, radical linguistic theory

scholarly journals Langues bantoues de l’entre Congo-Ubangi (RD Congo): documentation, reconstruction, classification et contacts avec les langues oubanguiennes

Afrika Focus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Bunza Donzo
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Northwestern Part ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
The Status ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Lexical Similarity ◽  
Phonological Reconstruction ◽  
Phd Thesis

This PhD thesis consists of the documentation, reconstruction and classification of ten Bantu langages (bolondó, bonyange, ebudzá, ebwela, libóbi, lingͻmbε, mondóngó, monyͻngͻ, mosángé, págaɓéte) spoken in the geographical area between the Congo and Ubangi Rivers in the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The study examines the interaction between these languages and seven neighboring Ubangian languages (gbánzírí, gͻbú, maɓó, mbānzā, monzͻmbͻ, ngbandi, ngbaka-mīnāgendē). By means of a lexicostatistical study which determines the degree of lexical similarity between the languages under study, a phylogenetic classification has been established which integrates these languages in the larger sample of 401 Bantu languages used by Grollemund et al. (2015). This quantitative approach has generated Neighbor-Net and Neighbor-Joining networks as well as Bayesian trees, which indicate the internal sub-groups of the Bantu family in general, and more specifically of the Bantu languages of the central Congo basin to which the Bantu languages spoken between the Congo and Ubangi Rivers belong. Subsequently, we have undertaken a descriptive and comparative study of the those languages as well as a study of regular sound correspondances with regard to Proto-Bantu. They possess certain foreign phonemes that have not been reconstructed to Proto-Bantu, such as implosives and labiovelar stops, which have the status of distinct phonemes. The study of these specific sounds suggests that they were borrowed from the neighboring Ubangian languages. The lexical comparison also revealed an interaction between Bantu and Ubangian languages. Certain lexical borrowings were transferred from Bantu to Ubangian, while others moved in the opposite direction. Through the comparative method, we have obtained a phonological reconstruction of the hypothetical ancestor language of these langues. This Proto-Congo-Ubangi Bantu split into two sub-branches, i.e. Proto-Congo Bantu and Proto-Ubangi Bantu.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Ringe
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Made In

This introductory chapter explains the rationale of the book and its intended audience. It indicates briefly the author’s positions on the uniformitarian principle, linguistic descent, the regularity of sound change, linguistic reconstruction, and the comparative method. It also outlines the changes made in this new revised edition.

scholarly journals On the Strata Analysis of First Division Unrounded Finals of Xiè Rhyme Group in Proto Min and Related Issues

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-176
Author(s):  
Rui-wen Wu
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Time Sequence ◽  
Six Dynasties ◽  
Old Chinese ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Southern Chinese ◽  
Chinese Dialect ◽  
Chinese Dialects ◽  
Diachronic Development

This paper analyses the different phonological strata of first division unrounded finals of the Xiè Rhyme Group （蟹攝），specifically the Xai rhyme and Tài rhyme, in the finals system of proto-Min and explores the distinction between double rhymes in old Jiangdong dialects. Norman (1981) reconstructed five finals for Xai rhyme and Tài rhyme. They are:*əi for Xai 菜咍栽咍來咍 *oi for Xai 袋咍 *ɑi for Tài 帶泰蔡泰蓋泰 *uəi for Xai 改咍 *yəi for Xai 開咍 According to Norman’s reconstruction, there are four finals for the Xai rhyme but there is only one final for the Tài rhyme. Therefore, some issues need to be clarified. To begin with, what is the time sequence of those four forms of Xai? Additionally, three forms are reconstructed by one cognate in proto-Min. It is highly doubtful to regard those forms as a single stratum individually. Furthermore, the double rhymes, Xai and Tài, could be distinct in the Qieyun system but merged in most modern Chinese dialects. However, some southern dialects retain the distinction (refer to Cao et al. 2000, Wang 2004 and Wu 2005). How is the distinction of double rhymes expressed in proto-Min? It is worth examining those questions in depth.The methodology of this paper is the comparative method. We would like to expand Min dialectal material and find more reliable cognates to reexamine Norman’s finals of Xai and Tài. From the perspective of historical development, proto-Min has several different phonological strata. After thoughtful and cautious analysis, those strata could be an important reference for the reconstruction of both Middle Chinese and Old Chinese. An important aim of this paper is to reconstruct the Jiangdong dialect, a southern Chinese dialect used in the Six Dynasties period, using proto-Min and related common dialect systems.In conclusion: 1. both Xai and Tài could be reconstructed as two forms in the finals system of Proto-Min. In brief, *-əi and *-oi are for Xai; *-ɑi and *-ai are for Tài. 2. from a diachronic development viewpoint,the pattern *-oi: *-ai reveals the distinction of Xai and Tài, i.e. double rhyme, in the Six Dynasties Jiangdong dialect. 3. Relatedly, the pattern *-əi: *-ɑi could be traced to differences between the Zhi group （之部） and Jì group （祭部） in Old Chinese.

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