Consonant strengthening: A crosslinguistic survey and articulatory proposal

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-302
Author(s):  
Joan Bybee ◽  
Shelece Easterday
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
The Common

AbstractGiven the common intuition that consonant lenition occurs more often than fortition, we formulate this as a hypothesis, defining these sound change types in terms of decrease or increase in oral constriction. We then test the hypothesis on allophonic processes in a diverse sample of 81 languages. With the hypothesis confirmed, we examine the input and output of such sound changes in terms of manner and place of articulation and find that while decrease in oral constriction (weakening) affects most consonant types, increase in oral constriction (strengthening) is largely restricted to palatal and labial glides. We conclude that strengthening does not appear to be the simple inverse of weakening. In conclusion we suggest some possible avenues for explaining how glide strengthening may result from articulatory production pressures and speculate that strengthening and weakening can be encompassed under a single theory of sound change resulting from the automatization of production.

Consonant lenition and phonological recategorization

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Ignacio Hualde ◽  
Miquel Simonet ◽  
Marianna Nadeu
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Acoustic Measurements ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
The Common ◽  
Phonetic Context

AbstractWe examine the weakening of intervocalic voiceless stops in Spanish in order to gain insight on historical processes of intervocalic lenition. In our corpus, about a third of all tokens of intervocalic /ptk/ are fully or partially voiced in spontaneous speech. However, even when fully voiced, /ptk/ tend to show greater constriction than /bdg/, with the velars being less different than labials and coronals. Word-initial and word-internal intervocalic segments are equally affected. Based on our findings from acoustic measurements of correlates of lenition, we propose that common reductive sound changes, such as intervocalic consonant lenition, start as across-the-board conventionalized phonetic processes equally affecting all targets in the appropriate phonetic context. The common restriction of the sound change to word-internal contexts may be a consequence of phonological recategorization at a later stage in the sound change.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Daniel Recasens
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Equivalence Model ◽  
Articulatory Model ◽  
Evolutionary Phonology

The chapter deals with the origin and phonetic causes of sound changes involving consonants, with the diachronic pathways connecting the input and output phonetic forms, and with models of sound change (e.g., Evolutionary Phonology, the Neogrammarian’s articulatory model, Ohala’s acoustic equivalence model). The need to use articulatory and acoustic data for ascertaining the causes of sound change (and in particular the palatalization and assibilation of velar, labial, and dentoalveolar obstruents) is emphasized. The chapter is also concerned with how allophones are phonologized in sound-change processes and with the special status of (alveolo)palatal stops regarding allophonic phonologization.

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.

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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