sound change - clas usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401soundchange.pdf · sound...
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Sound Change"Sound change, in so far as it takes place
mechanically, takes place according to laws that admit no exceptions"
(Osthoff & Brugmann, 1878)
![Page 2: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Motivations
• Early historical linguistic inquiry revolved around looking at related languages and related forms and positing origins
• Without a sound methodology, one can posit anything
• Need for a systematic, comprehensive method to investigate sound change & language relatedness
![Page 3: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Die Junggrammatiker("The Neogrammarians")
• Young linguists working in Leipzig (Germany) set out to rewrite historical linguistics by establishing coherent, comprehensive methodology to account for sound change
• This method was based upon what has come to be known as the Neogrammarian Regularity Hypothesis
![Page 4: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Regularity?• In the Neogrammarian sense, sound change is
absolutely regular IF the term "sound change" refers to change in sounds conditioned only by phonetic factors
• Another way to look at this is that sound change in absolutely regular if the change in sounds is NOT conditioned by non-phonetic factors
• Sound change is phonetically gradual (proceeds imperceptibly) but lexically abrupt (effects all relevant words simultaneously)
![Page 5: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
This means that ...• Analogy is not regular, neogrammarian sound
change (kine > cows, but swine didn't become *swows )
• Socially motivated change is not regular, neogrammarian sound change (shit > shoot, but hit didn't become *hoot )
• Neogrammarian sound change assumes that the change operates "blindly" and from "below" (without lexical or grammatical conditioning or any degree of social awareness)
![Page 6: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Blind Change
• "Pin" vs. "pen" in Appalachian English ([ɪ] & [ɛ] > [iə])
• "Mary" vs. "merry" vs. "marry" ([e] & [ɛ] & [æ] > [æ]
• Blind change often leads to circumlocutions or one of the newly formed homonyms being dropped (i.e. "cleave" is almost never used any more to mean "stick to")
![Page 7: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Other Caveats
• The regularity hypothesis is a statement about particular sound changes as historical events, limited by place, time and language / dialect
• Certain types of sound change, while not analogical, are nonetheless notoriously irregular
![Page 8: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Irregular Sound Change
• Metathesis = the transposition of sounds: OE bryde > Mod. Eng. bird, OE hros > Mod. Eng. horse
• Dissimilation = when sounds become less similar to make the difference between them more clear: colonel = [kərnəl]
![Page 9: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Two Cheers for Regularity
• While Neogrammarian regularity is real enough in many cases, their hope to establish "absolute" regularity was unrealistic
• The Neogrammarian regularity hypothesis is a good general guideline for investigating sound change
• Socially motivated sound change & Lexical Diffusion are also attested
![Page 10: Sound Change - CLAS Usersusers.clas.ufl.edu/drjdg/historical/pubs/0401SoundChange.pdf · Sound Change "Sound change, in so far as it takes place mechanically , takes place according](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022052918/5adecff27f8b9af05b8b99c7/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Lexical Diffusion• Lexical diffusion is an observed phenomenon: a
phoneme is modified in a subset of the lexicon, and then spreads gradually to other lexical items
• In this view, sound change is phonetically abrupt (proceeds in perceptible increments) but lexically gradual (spreads across the lexicon in groups of words)
• Lexical diffusion operates from "above": characteristic of an internal change that has been differentiated by lexical & grammatical conditioning (plus high social awareness and/or borrowing)