Natural Sound Change and Its Patterns: The Case of the Lateral Approximant l

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-140
Author(s):  
Wei Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Old Chinese ◽  
Natural Sound ◽  
Evolutionary Phonology ◽  
Diachronic Changes

In light of Chinese historical phonology, modern dialects, languages of Chinese minorities and field phonetics, this paper discusses (1) the development of the Yi-initial words from Old Chinese to Middle Chinese, (2) the development of the Lai-initial words from Middle Chinese to modern dialects, (3) the phonological behavior of segment l in different syllabic positions from the perspective of evolutionary phonology. Such evolutionary developments as palatalization, velarization, nasalization, labiodentalization, fricativization, strengthening and so on can be identified for approximant l. This provides an important panchronic and typological perspective for the interpretation of both diachronic changes and synchronic variation.

scholarly journals Optimality theory and historical phonology: an example from nasal harmony in Mundurukú

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 257-274
Author(s):  
Gessiane Picanço
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Relative Chronology ◽  
Modern System ◽  
Diachronic Changes

This paper offers an account of diachronic changes in nasal harmony in Mundurukú, a Tupian language from Brazil. It attempts to show that the Optimality Theory provides new ways of accounting for sound change, other than constraint re-ranking. A comparison of Mundurukú and Kuruaya's modern systems points out that the source system, Proto-Mundurukú, had similar properties to those currently observed in Kuruaya. In particular, nasal spread targets were voiced stops and sonorants, whereas voiceless obstruents were transparent. This system was developed into another in Pre-Mundurukú, because new contrasts were introduced in the language, turning obstruents into opaque segments, thus blocking nasalization. Formal OT account of both cases relies on restricting harmony constraints, as shown by the relative chronology that gave rise to Mundurukú's modern system. In addition, this study discusses the consequences of this change to synchronic grammar, and how it explains the process' irregularities.

scholarly journals Using Network Models to Analyze Old Chinese Rhyme Data (用網絡模型來分析古代漢語的韻母數據)

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann-Mattis List (游函)
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Online Application ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Old Chinese

The evidence one can draw from the rhyming behavior of Old Chinese words plays a crucial role for the reconstruction of Old Chinese, and is particularly relevant to recent proposals. Some of these proposals are no longer solely based on the intuition of scholars but also substantiated by statistical arguments that help to assess the probability by which a given set of rhyming instances can be assigned to an established rhyme group. So far, however, quantitative methods were only used to confirm given hypotheses regarding rhyme groups in Old Chinese, and no exploratory analyses that would create hypotheses regarding rhyme groups in a corpus were carried out. This paper presents a new method that models rhyme data as weighted undirected networks. By representing rhyme words as nodes in a network and the frequency of rhymes in a given corpus as links between nodes, rhyme groups can be inferred with help of standard algorithms originally designed for social network analysis. This is illustrated through the construction of a rhyme network from the Book of Odes and comparing the automatically inferred rhyme groups with rhyme groups proposed in the literature. Apart from revealing interesting general properties of rhyme networks in Chinese historical phonology, the analysis provides strong evidence for a coda *-r in Old Chinese. The results of the analysis and the rhyme network of the Book of Odes can be inspected in form of an interactive online application or directly downloaded. 古代漢語的詞語所反映的韻為對上古音系的構擬，特別是對於最近的一些上古漢語構擬系統，異常重要。其中有一些構擬系統不再僅僅靠於學者的直覺，而且還用統計參數證實來評估分韻和派韻的概率。然而，迄今為止，定量方法僅用於確認關於上古韻部的假設，並且沒有進行探索性數據分析來創建初步分韻假設。本文提出了一種將韻母數據模型為加權無向網絡的新方法。此方法將韻母模型為網絡中的頂點，將某個語料庫的合韻率模型為聯頂點的邊緣，用社會網絡分析的標準算法來推斷語料庫所反映的韻母。為了更具體的說明此方法，本文用“詩經”來構建韻母網絡，而且比較自動與學者所推斷的上古韻部。除了揭示古代漢語韻網的一些有趣特點，“詩經”韻網分析了支持上古漢語韻尾* -r的新證據。“詩經”韻網和韻網分析的結果可以用交際在線應用來訪問而下載。(This article is in English.)

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.

Analogy, simplification, and the history of French

1974 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78
Author(s):  
Douglas C. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Conditioning Factors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Verner's Law ◽  
Phonological Change

In traditional studies of historical phonology, there is frequently a division between sound change and analogy. Sound change is said to proceed gradually and inexorably under strictly phonetic conditions; “La règle générale est que les transformations phonétiques s’opèrent avec une constance absolue c’est-à-dire que les mêmes phonèmes placés dans les mêmes conditions, se développent d’une manière identique.” (Schwan-Behrens 1963: 12). Occasionally, when the conditions are not apparent, there may be some concern until further research uncovers the conditioning factors. Such was the case with Verner’s law, for example. Yet in any interesting situation, there remains a body of forms for which the proper phonetic environment cannot be found. The items just do not follow the normal phonetic “laws.” In these cases, analogy is often called on to explain the discrepancy, and also to account for the reintroduction of regularity into a system “ravaged” by the forces of phonological change; “L’analogie joue un rôle considérable en roman (et en français) qui s’est reconstitué, comme on l’a dit, sur les ruines du latin où les ravages d’une évolution phonétique brutale avaient entièrement boulversé le système des oppositions morphologiques et de leurs valeurs” (Guiraud 1965: 63).

scholarly journals Charting the rise and demise of a phonotactically motivated change in Scots

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-59
Author(s):  
Warren Maguire ◽  
Rhona Alcorn ◽  
Benjamin Molineaux ◽  
Joanna Kopaczyk ◽  
Vasilios Karaiskos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Internal Position ◽  
Natural Sound ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Complex Patterns

Abstract Although Old English [f] and [v] are represented unambiguously in Older Scots orthography by <f> and <v> (or <u>) in initial and morpheme-internal position, in morpheme-final position <f> and <v>/<u> appear to be used interchangeably for both of these Old English sounds. As a result, there is often a mismatch between the spellings and the etymologically expected consonant. This paper explores these spellings using a substantial database of Older Scots texts, which have been grapho-phonologically parsed as part of the From Inglis to Scots (FITS) project. Three explanations are explored for this apparent mismatch: (1) it was a spelling-only change; (2) there was a near merger of /f/ and /v/ in Older Scots; (3) final [v] devoiced in (pre-)Older Scots but this has subsequently been reversed. A close analysis of the data suggests that the Old English phonotactic constraint against final voiced fricatives survived into the pre-Literary Scots period, leading to automatic devoicing of any fricative that appeared in word-final position (a version of Hypothesis 3), and this, interacting with final schwa loss, gave rise to the complex patterns of variation we see in the Older Scots data. Thus, the devoicing of [v] in final position was not just a phonetically natural sound change, but also one driven by a pre-existing phonotactic constraint in the language. This paper provides evidence for the active role of phonotactic constraints in the development of sound changes, suggesting that phonotactic constraints are not necessarily at the mercy of the changes which conflict with them, but can be involved in the direction of sound change themselves.

Lexical phonology and sound change: the case of the Scottish vowel length rule

1991 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
April M. S. McMahon
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Phonological Rule ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Lexical Phonology ◽  
Generative Approach ◽  
Degree Of Similarity ◽  
Phonological Rules

The key assumption in the standard generative approach to historical linguistics (King, 1969) is that each sound change is incorporated directly into the native speaker's grammar as the final phonological rule, moving up gradually into the grammar as further changes are implemented. Restructuring of underlying representations by later generations during acquisition is theoretically permitted, but infrequently invoked, with the result that the historical phonology of a language will be almost directly mirrored in the order of its phonological rules. The only extractable generalizations are then that the ‘highest’ rules will correspond to the oldest changes, and that a sound change and the rule into which it is converted will tend to be identical or at least show a high degree of similarity in formulation. This approach casts no light at all on the problem of the implementation of sound change.

Disyllabic attractors and anti-antigemination in Austronesian sound change

Phonology ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Blust
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Interesting Consequence ◽  
Austronesian Languages ◽  
Widespread Occurrence ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Dominant Pattern ◽  
Recurrent Patterns

An overview of the historical phonology of the Austronesian languages shows certain recurrent patterns of change that resemble the synchronic notion of a conspiracy. Over 90% of all lexical bases in Proto-Austronesian and other early Austronesian proto-languages are disyllabic. This dominant pattern, which was transmitted to most of the 1200-plus Austronesian languages spoken today, has tended repeatedly to reassert itself in forms that have come to have other than two syllables. As a structurally defined target that is satisfied by diverse historical changes, this preferential disyllabism can be considered an ‘attractor’ in the sense of Kelso (1995). Perhaps the most interesting consequence of disyllabic attractors in Austronesian historical phonology is the widespread occurrence of syncope only between identical consonants, a pattern that Odden (1988) has characterised in synchronic systems as one of ‘anti-antigemination’.

Sound Change, Preferences, and Explanation

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-441
Author(s):  
Robert W. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Original Theory ◽  
Preference Theory ◽  
The Status ◽  
Basic Concepts

Based on data from Romance historical phonology, Picard (1990) attempts to demonstrate that the preference theory for syllable structure developed in Vennemann (1988a), Murray (1988), and elsewhere is inadequate. In this response, I argue that Picard's criticisms are vitiated by a number of flaws including a) the fact that he misconstrues basic concepts of preference theory in a number of cases and accordingly develops false extensions which have little relevance to the original theory and b) that his criticism of consonantal strength does not take into consideration different theoretical frameworks. Although some substantive points remain including the status of sibilant plus plosive clusters, the internal structuring of syllables, and Proto-Romance syllabication, I argue that preference theory provides a suitable basis for the fruitful development of research along these lines.

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