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.

Post-nasal devoicing and the blurring process

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAŠPER BEGUŠ
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Central Topic ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Phonological Typology ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Individual Accounts

This paper addresses one of the most contested issues in phonology: unnatural alternations. First, non-natural phonological processes are subdivided into unmotivated and unnatural. The central topic of the paper is an unnatural process: post-nasal devoicing (PND). I collect thirteen cases of PND and argue that in all reported cases, PND does not derive from a single unnatural sound change (as claimed in some individual accounts of the data), but rather from a combination of three sound changes, each of which is phonetically motivated. I present new evidence showing that the three stages are directly historically attested in the pre-history of Yaghnobi. Based on several discussed cases, I propose a new diachronic model for explaining unnatural phenomena called the Blurring Process and point to its advantages over competing approaches (hypercorrection, perceptual enhancement, and phonetic motivation). The Blurring Process establishes general diachronic conditions for unnatural synchronic processes and can be employed to explain unnatural processes beyond PND. Additionally, I provide a proof establishing the minimal sound changes required for an unmotivated/unnatural alternation to arise. The Blurring Process and Minimal Sound Change Requirement have implications for models of typology within the Channel Bias approach. This paper thus presents a first step toward the ultimate goal of quantifying the influences of Channel Bias on phonological typology.

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.

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.

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 Using Data Mining Algorithms to Discover Regular Sound Changes among Languages

2019 ◽  
Vol 292 ◽  
pp. 03018
Author(s):  
Peter Z. Revesz
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Association Rule ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Mining Method ◽  
Data Mining Method ◽  
Data Mining Algorithms ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Mining Algorithms

This paper presents a method of using association rule data mining algorithms to discover regular sound changes among languages. The method presented has a great potential to facilitate linguistic studies aimed at identifying distantly related cognate languages. As an experimental example, this paper presents the application of the data mining method to the discovery of regular sound changes between the Hungarian and the Sumerian languages, which separated at least five thousand years ago when the Proto-Sumerian reached Mesopotamia. The data mining method discovered an important regular sound change between Hungarian word initial /f/ and Sumerian word initial /b/ phonemes.

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