Papers in Historical Phonology
Not a member yet
54 research outputs found
Sort by
Against a regular epenthesis rule for Hmong-Mien
Get PDF*mbl-/*mbr- (Ratliff 2010) and *m.l(ɣ)-/*m.r(ɣ)- (Ostapirat 2016) have been proposed as reconstructions for correspondence sets that include NCL-, CL-, N-, and C- onsets across the Hmong-Mien family. Ostapirat assumes that the stop arose by a regular rule of epenthesis in the protolanguage. I examine the arguments for these two reconstructions and conclude that epenthesis in an onset is not without cross-linguistic support, but it is not the better analysis in this case. The arguments against a regular epenthesis rule for Hmong-Mien are based primarily on laryngeal contrasts in stops occurring in this position and the relationship of NCL- onsets to Proto-Hmong-Mien prenasalized stops. Secondary arguments involve exceptions to an epenthesis rule, and a reconsideration of the loanword evidence
Vocalic Shifts in Attic-Ionic Greek
Get PDFIn this work, a number of vocalic changes in the Attic-Ionic Greek dialect group are examined from chronological and theoretical perspectives. These include a vocalic chain shift among the (originally) back vowels that occurred in both Attic and Ionic, quantitative metathesis, the second compensatory lengthening, and the Attic Rückverwandlung (reversion). After discussing the orthographic evidence from inscriptions found throughout the Attic-Ionic dialectal area and taking into consideration both synchronic and diachronic phonological theory, I advocate for a particular relative chronology of these changes. Finally, the significance of these changes for a theory of vocalic chain shifting is presented. This involves a consideration of the status of /u/-fronting and of push chains in historical phonology in general
Voice-induced vowel lengthening
Get PDFVowels are longer before sonorants and voiced obstruents than before voiceless obstruents. This pattern is found in many languages and by some is argued to be universal. In some languages it has been phonologized and gives rise to alternations. Three cases are examined: Western Slavic, English and German. In all cases, I argue that the mechanism which modifies vowel duration in a voiced context is phonetic in kind (not phonological), and involves voice-induced lengthening, rather than so-called ‘pre-fortis clipping’. Phonetic length can be phonologized by its inscription into the lexical recording of morphemes. Phonological processes such as (Canadian) raising in English or oo > uu raising in Western Slavic may then take this lexical length as an input. This analysis allows us to keep spontaneous and non-spontaneous voicing truly separate: voicing in sonorants and vowels is never phonologically active, its spreading can only occur in the phonetics (‘passive voicing’ in Laryngeal Realism). A strong argument in favour of this view is the fact that cross-linguistically sonorants appear to always be among the triggers of voice-induced vowel lengthening: there are no cases where vowels lengthen before voiced obstruents, but not before sonorants. This is predicted if lengthening is phonetic, but unexpected if it were phonological: the phonologically active voicing of obstruents should at least sometimes be the only trigger.
Reality in a soft science: the metaphonology of historical reconstruction
Get PDFAll disciplines that deal with (apparent) recovery of objects from the past are faced by a fundamental question: what is the metaphysical status of these objects? Are they realia of some kind, or are they merely epistemic objects with no substance? This could be summed up from a debate still going on in quantum physics: do quantum systems have a real existence, or are they merely devices for calculation? In this paper I sum up the advantages of having an ontology, and the disadvantages of assuming that reconstructed linguistic objects are not real. I also discuss the uniformitarian position that makes this an unproblematic claim. I also deal with the neo-Saussurean claim that reconstructed items have no reality in themselves, but solely in terms of the systems they are in; and I suggest that this position (held by Meillet and Kuryłowicz among others), is fundamentally perverse
The diachrony of Mapudungun stress assignment
Get PDFStress assignment is one of the most widely-known and controversial aspects of present-day Mapudungun (aka Araucanian) phonology. Here, the diachrony of the phenomenon is explored based on the available written record spanning 1606–1936. Having surveyed these sparse but suggestive data, and contrasted them with present-day evidence, I suggest four distinct stages of development. Ultimately, I go on to argue that Mapudungun has undergone changes both to the morphological and metrical domains which determine stress assignment. At the level of the morphology, stress appears to have changed from marking the edge of verbal roots, to marking the edge of stems. In terms of metrical units, the apparent lack of weight-sensitivity in the earliest stages of the language is replaced by a decidedly weight-sensitive system towards the end. Finally, I argue that stress assignment in Mapudungun is subordinate to morpho-phonological transparency both synchronically and diachronically, allowing the position of stress to vary in order to highlight the morphology
Lexical tone in Deori: loss, contrast and word based alignment
Get PDFIn this paper we investigate the existence of tones in Deori, a language which is historically known to have had tonal distinctions. In a study, 5 speakers were recorded for their production of potential lexical tones in a list of 34 words, and a list of 54 monosyllabic roots were recorded for a vowel experiment. We conducted an f0 analysis in order to examine the extent of ‘tonoexodus’ and loss of tonal properties in Deori. To the extent that experimental methods can be used to determine lexical tone, phonetic measurements of f0 and further statistical analysis reliably indicate the distribution of lexically distinct tones. The results show clear presence of tonally distinctive words but without any definitive tonal alignment. We consider the diachrony and synchronic analysis of this and conclude that the syllable is not the Tone Bearing Unit in the conventional sense in current Deori, and that there is no clinching evidence to suggest alignment and spreading of the lexically distinctive tone to the right edge. Given these results, we conclude that tone is spread in the entire word in Deori. We also note that Deori no longer exhibits the prototypical Tibeto-Burman sesquisyllabic pattern and has instead developed an iambic stress pattern
Breaking the symmetry of geminates in diachrony and synchrony
Get PDFAutosegmentalism invariably represents geminates in a symmetrical one-to-many relationship — as feature bundles or root nodes attached to two structural units: x-slots, moras, or C-slots. This symmetry, however, is often not reflected in their diachronic origin. For instance, in Blevins’ (2008) Type 1 pathway, only the second C of a consonant cluster (CC) ever determines the geminate: CxCy > CyCy, *CxCx (e.g. Latin > Italian). Moreover, although most synchronic processes identify geminates as symmetrical, there is an exception: geminate integrity. Unlike CCs and long vowels (LVs), geminates never ‘break’ by epenthesis: *CyCy > CyVCy. We propose that this is central to understanding the true nature of geminates, and present analyses in two frameworks. The first is ‘control by contiguity’, which uses head-dependent ‘control chains’ (Russo 2013). A control relation applies between a specified and an unspecified position: -C. Inalterability and integrity result from the asymmetry of the geminate’s positions. The second is based on Strict CV. This restricts a geminate’s melody to one of its two skeletal positions. Unlike CC and LVs, geminates do not involve a ‘trapped’ empty V position that could host epenthesis and cause breaking; the difference between LVs and geminates follows from framework-internal forces and suggests that melodic branching always requires licensing. These two approaches share the insight that the representation of geminates is not symmetrical, like that of long vowels
Preface
Get PDFMany groups of people working in a range of distinct branches of study all contribute to our understanding of the ways in which phonology can change. Papers in Historical Phonology aims to provide a platform where these groups can talk to each other. It aims to celebrate this diversity of approach, to tie in with the long traditions of research on phonological change, variation and reconstruction, and to push forward debate and understanding, both by welcoming methodological innovation (alongside time-honoured approaches) and by pushing the boundaries of current publication practices. This preface describes PiHPh and places it in context
Tone loss in Sranan Creole: re-thinking contact driven change
Get PDFAmong the Surinamese creoles, Sranan is a stress-accent language whereas both Ndyuka and Saramaccan exhibit phonological tone in addition to stress. Previous attempts to explain this historical divergence understand tone loss in Sranan to be directly associated with its innovation of complex onsets modeled after Dutch. Appealing to the argument of Aceto (1996) for the presence of CR- onsets in early Surinamese Creole, I contend that it was the opposite innovation in the maroon creoles—removal of liquid clusters via epenthesis and consequent intervocalic liquid deletion, producing heavy syllables—that contributed to the survival of distinctive phonological tone
Rule scattering and vowel length in Northern Romance
Get PDFIn this paper I reconsider the synchronic status of distinctive vowel length and vowel lengthening and shortening rules in Northern Romance varieties, in light of Loporcaro’s (2015) wide-ranging study of vowel quantity in numerous Romance dialects. Loporcaro (2015) argues that these varieties possess distinctive, phonemic vowel length, and mostly do not have synchronic rules that produce surface long vowels, contrary to many previous analyses of the relevant patterns. In this paper, I argue instead that that lexical vowel length distinctions coexist, in some Northern Romance varieties, with productive phonological rules manipulating vowel quantity. This co- existence is best understood with recourse to the life cycle of phonological processes, and in particular the notion of rule scattering (Bermúdez-Otero 2015). This approach not only allows us to reach an adequate interpretation of the basic facts but also makes further predictions regarding the status of quantity-manipulating rules, which also turn out to be correct, providing further support for the theory of the life cycle