Anarticulatorytheoryofsoundchange

Anarticulatorytheoryofsoundchange

Hypothesis:Mostcommoninitialmotivationforsoundchangeistheautomationofproduction.Tokensreducedonline,areperceivedasreducedandrepresentedintheexemplarclusterasreduced.

Thereforeweexpectsoundchangestoreflectadecreaseingesturalmagnitudeandanincreaseingesturaloverlap.

Whataresomewaystotestthearticulatorymodel?Thetheorymakespredictionsaboutwhatisapossiblesoundchange.Thesepredictionscouldbetestedonacross-linguisticdatabase.

Soundchangesthattakeplaceinthelanguagesoftheworldareverysimilar(Blevins2004,Bateman2000,Hajek 1997,Greenbergetal.1978).

Weshouldconsiderbothcommonandrarechangesandtrytoexplainboth.Commonandrarechangesmighthavedifferentcharacteristics.

Amongthepropertieswecouldlookforaretypesofphoneticmotivation,typesoflexicaldiffusion,gradualness,conditioningenvironmentandresultingsegments.

Commonvs.raresoundchange?

Weneedadatabasethatallowsustotesthypothesesconcerningwhattypesofchangesarecommonandwhattypesarenot.

Adatabaseofsoundchanges?

Mostsoundchangeshaveoccurredinundocumentedperiodssothatwehavenorecordofthem.

Evenincaseswithwrittenrecords,thephoneticinterpretationmaybeunclear.

Onlyasmallnumberoflanguageshavehistoricrecords.

Soanysampleofknownsoundchangeswouldbebiasedtowardsthoselanguages.

Adatabaseofsoundchanges?

Soundchangesareknownonlyforsomelanguagesoftheworld:

Languageswithwrittenhistories.

Soundchangescanbereconstructedbycomparingrelatedlanguages.

PIE*p>finGermanicAlso:Latinped- OldEnglish fōt

Latinpiscis OldEnglishfisc

TraditionalreconstructionofPIEstops(Lehmann1955)

*p *t *k *kw*d *g *gw

*bh *dh *gh*ghw

The‘glottalic’ reconstruction (Hopper1973)

*p *t *k *kw*t’ *k’ *kw’

*b *d *g *gw

Adatabaseofsoundchanges?Reconstructedchangescannotbethebasisofatheoryofsoundchange.

Manylanguageshavenorecordedhistory.

Whatcanwelearnfromsynchronicdescriptions?

Mostphonologicalrulesthatdescribesoundalternationscomeaboutthroughsoundchange.

Allophonic‘rules’ordistributionscanbethoughtofasdescribingsoundchange.

Phoneticconditioningonly:Soundchangeshavehistories,too.

Asoundchangestartsasasmallphoneticchange,butthenmaycontinueuntiltheaffectedsegmentsaremoredistinctphonetically.

Palatalizationof/k/ inLatin>Spanishk>c>tʃ >ts >s/θ beforeafrontVorglide

Spanish:eléctri[k]ovs.electri[s]idadRule:k>s/___frontvowel(telescoping)

Rule:k>s/___frontvowelTelescoping(Hyman1975)

Notethattheruleisnotproductive.Onecannowhave/k/beforeafrontvowelwithoutachangeoccurring:Spanish: quince [kinse]‘fifteen’

queso [keso]‘cheese’

Soundchangeshavehistories,too.

Inversion:(Vennemann1972)IfwethinkoftheEnglishpluralmarkeras/z/,thenitisnecessarytoaddavowelinwordslikesclasses,wishes,churches.

Historically,however,thevowelwasthereandadeletionoccurredinmostcontexts,butnotwheretheprecedingCwasasibilant.

Soundchangeshavehistories,too.

Today,thevowel-insertionismorphologically-conditioned,asitisrestrictedtoapplyingwhere/z/isaplural,possessiveor3rd sg.Verbsuffix.

Thekà s‘rule’inSpanishislexicallyrestricted.

Phoneticconditioning

Inordertobesurethesynchronicprocesseswearelookingatarephoneticallyconditioned,wehavetoexcludealternationsthataremorphologicallyorlexicallyconditionedandnotphoneticallyproductive.

ALLOPHONDatabase

SheleceEasterdayandIconstructedadatabaseofphoneticallyconditioned(allophonic)processesin82languages.

Thelanguageswerechosentobemaximallyunrelatedgenealogically.ThesampleisbasedontheGRAMCATS sampledescribedinTheEvolutionofGrammar (1994).

ALLOPHONDatabase

Thedatawascollectedfromreferencegrammarsandcodedasfollows:

1. thesegmentundergoingchange,2. theresultingsegment,and3. theconditioningenvironment

wereallcodedforphonologicalfeaturesaccordingtothetraditionalclassificationsofconsonantvs.vowel,voicing,placeofarticulationandmannerofarticulation.

ALLOPHONDatabase

2.Multiplesegmentsundergoingachangeweredescribedinasingleprocessif

a.theinputsegmentsconstitutedaphoneticallydescribableclassb.theoutputsegmentsconstituteda

phonetically describableclassc.thefeatureschangedarethesamed.theconditioningenvironmentisthesame.

ALLOPHONDatabase

3.Whethertheprocessoccursacrossword-boundariesornot.4.Whethertheprocessoccursinrapidorcasualspeechorotherspecialsociolinguisticcontexts.

26%ofthe800+processescodedwerenotedtooccurintheconditionsmentionedin(4),suggestingthatthedatabaserepresentsashallowtime-depthofsoundchange.

Assumptions

1. Allophonicprocessesandphonetically-conditionedprocessesarethefirststageinthephonologizationofsoundchange.

2. Suchprocesses,likesoundchange,havephoneticexplanations.

3. Whilephoneticprocessesareverysimilaracrosslanguages,werecognizethattheremaybelanguage-specificdifferencesamongthem.

4. However,wealsoassumeinlookingforphoneticexplanations,thatsimilarprocessesacrosslanguageswillhavesimilarexplanations.

Somegeneralresults

49%ofprocessesareassimilatoryandmaybegesturalretiming.

35%arelenitionsorthereductionofgesturalmagnitudeorduration.

3.5%arestrengtheningGlidestrengthening 19Fricativestrengthening 9

Resultsonassimilation

Of391assimilationprocessesAnticipatory 56% (SeealsoJavkin 1978)Carryover 27%Both 17%

Placeassimilation:C-to-Vassimilation

Anticipatory 59%C-to-Cassimilation

Anticipatory 67% (SeealsoBlevins2004)

Strengtheningorfortition

Aphonologicalprocess(orsoundchange)thatincreasesthemagnitudeordurationofagesture.

NB:definedarticulatorily,notacoustically.t>ts orp>pf isnotastrengthening,itisaweakening.

Closurepointiseroding.Onapathtowardsfurtherweakening:pf >f;ts >s.

Apparentstrengtheningorfortition

ExcrescentCs:OEþunrian ‘tothunder’;bræmle ‘bramble’OldSpanish:salir +á ‘leave+FUT’>salrá >saldrávenir +á ‘come+FUT’>venrá >vendráLatin:homine ‘man’>Spanishhombre

ExcrescentCdevelopsoutofarticulationsthatarealreadypresent,asshownbythepointsofarticulation.Itisnotanincreaseinmagnitudeofagesture.

Somelanguagesreported tohavesynchronicorhistoricalpalatalglidestrengthening.

Blust 1990,inasurveyofknownsoundchangesinAstronesianlanguagesreports thatfortitionsarerestrictedtothesemivowels*yand*w.Thesearedetailedonpage50.

Theyinclude*wbecoming [gw]and*ybecomingacoronalaffricateHeevencitescaseswherethetransitionalglidebetweentwovowelsstrengthens into[b]or[g].

GlidestrengtheningAlloPhon database

MostfrequenttypeofCstrengtheninginAlloPhon database.12casesofapalatalglidestrengthening

ex:Pech /j/>[dj](word- ormorpheme-initial) (Holt1999:16)

ex:Slavey (Diné)variation:[j]~[ʒ][ʔajilá] ~[ʔaʒilá]‘3sdidto3s’(Rice1999)

Apinajé (Macro-Jê)(Oliveira2005:58-59)• a./ajet/[aˈʑet]‘tobesuspended onasurface’• b./atkaje/[atkaˈʑe]‘tocrack;tofissure’• c./jar/[ˈʑari]‘that(one)!’

Glidestrengthening

7casesofalabiovelarglidestrengthening

ex:Pech /w/>[gw](word- ormorpheme-initial)(Holt1999:16)

ex:Apinajé (Oliveira2005:60a)• a./kuwe/ [guˈvej]‘bird’

b./aw/ [aˈvəɾ]‘towardsyou’

Glidestrengtheningoccursinsyllable-initialposition.

Fricative>stoporaffricate

3casesofpalato-alveolartoaffricateorstopPech (Chibchan)/ta-ʃùna/>[ta-tʃùna]‘mynail’(Holt1999:16youngerspeakersuse[tʃ];possibleinfluenceofSpanish.)

Sheko (Omotic)(Hellenthal 2010:86) Free variationbāʒà [bāʒà ]~[bādʒà ]~[bāɟà ]‘work’

Garífuna (Arawakan)(Taylor1955:235)/ʃ/inunstressedsyllablesvarieswith[tʃ]instressedsyllables.

Fricative>stoporaffricate

3casesof/f/,/ɸ/,/β/to/p/.

Ningil (Sepik)[p]and[ɸ]fluctuatefreely(Manning andSaggers 1977:57)

Koiari (Papuan)(Dutton1996:6)/f/mayhave[p]asafreevariantwith[ɸ]word-initiallyprecedingbackvowels.[ɸuˈɸuri]~[puˈɸuri]‘Fufuri (nameofarock)

Oksapmin (Papuan)(Loughnane 2009:33)/ɸ/has[p]asanallophonesyllable-finally(no/p/phonemeashistorically,*pand*ɸmerged.

Fricativetostoporaffricate

Arethesestrengthening?

2casesofaglottalfricative>palatalfricativebeforehighfrontvowels

Maidu:j>ç /___highfrontV(Shipley1964)Tinrin:j>c/___highfrontV(Osumi 1995)

Fricativetostoporaffricate

Mostofthecasesdescribevariation.Directionalityunclearinmostcases.

InAlloPhon

Weakeningof/p/isdocumentedin8casesWeakeningofapalato-alveolaraffricateisfoundin3cases

Weakeningofstoptofricativeisfoundateverypointofarticulation,butreportedstrengtheningonlyatthelabialandpalato-alveolarpointsofarticulation.

Strengthening

Evidenceconcerningfricativetostop/affricateisdoubtful.

Overwhelmingly,bestdocumentedtypeofstrengtheningisglidestrengthening.

Strengthening

Evidencethatapalatal(high,front)articulationplaysasubstantialroleinstrengthening.

Arole,butalesserone,isplayedbylabialarticulations.

Notongue-tiparticulationsinvolvedinstrengthening

Inthefollowingwecomparethepointsofarticulationfoundinstrengtheningwiththosefoundinassimilation.

Strengthening

Givenhowspecific‘strengthening’processesseemtobe1. Notjusttheconverseof‘weakening’2. PerhapsrelatedtoPalatalizationand

labializationassimilations1. Bothtendtooccurinsyllable-initial position2. Boththeytendtooccurinthesamelanguages

‘Place’assimilationC-to-VandV-to-C

VowelandglidebacknessfeaturesaffectingCs

Table4.Vowelandglideheightfeaturesthataffectconsonants

WhenVfeaturesaffectCs,itisthehighfrontvowelthatcausesassimilationmostoften.

Palatalization

AnassimilationofaCconditionedbyahighand/orfrontvowelorglide.

Atypicalpalatalizationhasasitsoutcomeanarticulationinthepalatalorpalato-alveolarregion,butourstudyencompassesotheroutcomesaswell.

SecondarypalatalizationcanoccuronanyCbutchangesinplaceusuallyaffectcoronalsandvelars.

DatafromHymanandMoxley1996.Thelettercstandsfor[tʃ].

Palatalization

Fullpalatalizationaffectscoronalsanddorsals.

(Allegedfullpalatalizationoflabialsappearstobeattributabletoglidestrengthening,Bateman2010)

SecondarypalatalizationcanaffectanyC(Bateman2007;2010).

Palatalization

ThoughanticipatorypalatalizationofaCtoaVisthemostfrequentplacefeatureassimilation,itonlyoccursinabouthalfthelanguagesoftheworld.

Bateman’s2007sampleof117lgs yieldsabout50%.

Allophonesampleof82languagesyields55%.

PalatalizationThemostcommonpalatalizationprocessesareanticipatory,meaningitisasyllable-initialCthatpalatalizesinmostcases.

Whydoesahigh,fronttonguepositioncausemoreassimilationthananyotherarticulation?

Recasens’2014theoryofarticulatoryconstraintorresistance:owingtothemassofthearticulatorinvolved,somearticulatorygesturesresisttheinfluenceofneighboringgesturesmore,andalsoinfluenceothergesturesmore.

Palatalizationandstrengthening

Evidencethatplaceassimilationandstrengtheningarerelated.

1. Thesamepointsofarticulationarefavoredforbothprocesses.

2. Someprocessesinvolvebothassimilationandstrengthening.

3. Aswewillseelater,glidestrengtheningtendstooccurinlanguagesthathavedevelopedpalatalization.

Palatalizationandstrengthening

Someprocessesinvolvestrengtheninginapalatalizingenvironment:AlloPhon:thefollowinghaveglidestrengtheningbeforeafrontvowel:Tinrin (Austronesian)Carib (Ge-Pano-Carib)Apinayé (Ge-Pano-Carib)Selepet (Indo-Pacific)Lahu (Sino-Tibetan)

Palatalizationandstrengthening

Intheconveniencesample,thefollowinghaveglidestrengtheningbeforeafrontvowel:

Atayal (Austronesian,NorthernFormosan)Awa(Kainantu,Barbacoan)Fanti (Niger-Congo,Akan)German(Indo-European)Nupe (Niger-Congo)

Strengtheningbeforeahighvowel:LowerGrandValleyDani (Trans-NewGuinea)

Dopalatalizationandstrengtheningoccurinthesamelanguages?

Somelanguagesshowalonghistoryofpalatalizationprocesses,withglidestrengtheningdevelopingafterotherprocesses(Romancelanguages).

Therefore,wewanttocheckthepresenceofsynchronicpalatalizationprocessesand

Thepresenceofpalatalandpalato-alveolarCsinthephonemeinventory,becausepalatalizationprocessesproducenewphonemes.

Languageswithglidestrengthening, AlloPhon sample.Allofthesehavecurrentpalatalizationprocesses,orCsinthepalato-alveolarregion intheirCinventories, indicatingeithercurrentorpastpalatalizationprocesses.

Languageswithsynchronicordiachronicglidestrengthening andthepresenceofpalatalizationprocessesorpalatal/palato-alveolarCsinphoneme inventory.

Diachroniccasestudy:Romance

TheeffectofapalatalvowelorglideinRomancelanguages

FirstcenturyAD(Penny1991)

VulgarLatin(Penny1991)

ChangesinCphonemeinventories

Frenchadds[ʃ],[ʒ]and[ɲ]

Spanishadds[tʃ],[ɲ]and[lj]

Portugueseadds[ʃ],[ʒ],[lj]and[ɲ]

PalatalglidestrengtheninginRomance

Latin:didnothaveaconsonantalglideaccordingtoKent1945.

PortugueseLatin iustum > Portjusto [ʒustu]‘fair’

iam > Portjá [ʒa] ‘now,already’

ArgentineSpanishModSpanishya ‘now’>[ʒa]

yo ‘I’ >[ʒo]llamar >[ʒamar]

PalatalizationandstrengtheninginCclusters

Thissequencestartsaspalatalizationandendsupasstrengthening(inPortuguese).

Latin Spanish Portugueseplicare ‘toarrive’llegar [ʎ]>[j] [tʃegar]>[ʃegar]chegarpluvia ‘rain’ lluvia [ʎ] [tʃuva]>[ʃuva]chuvaclamare ‘tocall’ llamar [ʎ] [tʃamar]>[ʃamar]chamarclave ‘key’ llave [ʎ] [tʃave]>[ʃave]chaveflamma ‘flame’ llama[ʎ] [tʃama]>[ʃama]chama

Menéndez-Pidal:the[l]palatalizesandtheinitialCislost.

PalatalizationandstrengtheninginCclusters

Frenchstrengtheningof[j]inclusterswithlabialCs:

Isthereapalatalizingtypeoflanguage?

Aswesawabove,allthelanguageswehavecheckedthathaveglidestrengtheningalsohaveassimilationprocessesconditionedbyahighand/orfrontVorglide,or

Csintheirphonemeinventoryinthepalatalorpalato-alveolarregion,evidenceofsuchprocesseshavingoccurredinthepast.

RecallthatonlyabouthalfofthelanguagessampledbyusandbyBatemanhavepalatalizationprocesses.

Isthereapalatalizingtypeoflanguage?

Possibleunderlyingcauses:1. Greaterco-articulationofsyllable-initialCandV.Inthatcase

otherplaceassimilationswouldalsooccur.

2. Articulatorysetting:perhapstheselanguageshaveahighfronttonguepositionthatishigherandmoretothefrontthanotherlanguages.(Gick,Bryan,IanWilson,KarstenKoch&ClareCook.(2004).Language-specificarticulatorysettings:evidencefrom inter-utterancerestposition.Phonetica 61.220-233.)

3. Articulatoryconstraint:perhapsthehighfronttonguepositionhasgreaterarticulatoryconstraintinsomelanguagesthaninothers.(Recasens,Daniel&Aina Espinosa.(2009).Anarticulatoryinvestigationoflingual coarticulatoryresistanceandaggressivenessforconsonantsandvowelsinCatalan.JASA 125.2288–98.)

Articulationvs.perceptionintheexplanationforsoundchange

Directionality

Lenition isverycommonFortitions areveryconstrained,occurringonlywithspecificarticulations,whichhappentobearticulationscommonlyinvolvedinassimilations.Assimilation isverycommonDissimilation israreandoftennotlexicallyregularMetathesisisrare.

CrosslinguisticpatternsStronglysuggestphoneticexplanationsforsoundchange.

But,aretheseexplanationsgroundedinarticulationorperception?

Myviewisthatsoundchangetakesplacebytheautomationofproduction.

1.highfrequencywordsundergosoundchangeearlierthanlowfrequencywords2.assimilationandlenitionstronglyresemblechangesthatoccurinotherhighly-practicedneuromotoractivities.

Aresoundchangesmotivatedbyarticulationorperception?

Ohala2003

Variation:‘essentiallyinfinite’(p.672)

Present-dayvariationparallelssoundchangeExamplesin(2)arepalatalizationsofcoronalbeforeahighfrontvowelorglide.

Ohala:misperceptionCompensationinperception:normalization

Experimentshaveshownlistenerscompensateforthephoneticenvironment.

Beddor etal:/ɛ/- /æ/continuumunderthreeconditions:/ɛd/- /æd//ɛd/- /æd/(subjects heard more/æ/vowels)/ɛn/- /æn/

ListenersparsethenasalizationwiththenasalC.

Misperception:failuretonormalize

Appliestoassimilativesoundchanges.

Presupposespriorarticulatoryvariation.The‘misperception’phonologizes thevariation.

Canlenitionbeexplainedinthesameway?

VdV >VðV >VV

1. Whywouldhighfrequencywordschangeearlierthanlowfrequencywords?

2. Howdomisperceptionsspreadacrossthelexicon?

3. Givenhowfinely-tunedtheperceptualsystemis,whywouldlistenersmakemistakes?

4. Canmisperceptionaccountforglidefortition?

Whywouldlistenersmakemistakes?

Maybetheyarenotmistakes.

Maybeoncethearticulatorychangehasadvancedtoacertainpoint,thereisachangeinwhatthelistenerandspeakertaketobethemainfeatureorlocusofthefeature.

Beddor 2009showsthisforṼNsequencesinEnglish.

Arethereanyregularsoundchangesthathavetobeduetomisperception?

Thetatof:throw>frow

Other‘longdistance’changes:

Czechdialects:p’>t

dissimilation

Latin Spanish glossarbor árbol treerobre roble oakmarmore mármol marblecarcere cárcel prisonlocale lugar place

dissimilation

Latinsuffix–ālis >-ārisWhenthestemendsin/l/

national popularmarginal regularoptimal modular

DissimilationOhala2003:Dissimilationisperceptualhypercorrection

Listenersdoalotofnormalizationorcorrectionwhendecodingspeech.Whenafeaturefromonesegmenttendstospreadoveralargestretchofspeech,listenerslearntodisregardit.

Iftheydisregardafeaturethatisnotredundant,thismightleadtodissimilation.

Iftherhoticqualityofthefinalvowelofarbor isattributedtotheearlier/r/,then/l/mightbeproduced.

dissimilation

Tongue-twistereffect

Difficulttoproducetwo/r/sortwo/l/sinarow.

Dissimilation1. Featuresinvolvedwouldbethosewhoseacoustic-

perceptualcuestendtospreadoverrelativelylongtimeintervals.Aspiration,glottalization,retroflexion,palatalization,pharyngealization,labialization,etc.

2. Conditioningenvironmentispreserved.

3. Doesnotproducenovelsegments.

4. Occursonlywithinwords.

1. Notusuallylexicallyregular

dissimilation

Lexicallyregularexamplesinvolvelaryngealfeaturessuchasglottatalization oraspiration.AncientGreek:onlyoneaspiratedstopper

wordHausa(Chaddic)andYucatecMayan:cannot

havetwoejectivesperwordunlesstheyareotherwiseidentical

Quecha:onlyoneglottalizedCperword.

dissimilation

Notethattheresultisalwaysa‘plain’C.

CasesdonotoccurinwhichoneoftwoplainCsbecomesaspiratedorglottalized.

Couldthisalsobeareduction?

Metathesis

Metathesis:twosegmentsappeartochangeposition(Hume2004)

Latinriparia >[ribeira]>Sp [riβera] ‘riverbank’

Latin casium >caiso >Sp queso ‘cheese’[keso]

sporadicEnglish:axian ‘toask’>ask[aksian]

Metathesis:ModernHebrewMorpheme surfaceform gloss

hit-nakem hitnakem hetookrevengehit-raxec hitraxec hewashedhimselfhit-balet hidbalet hebecameprominenthit-darder hiddarderhedeclined,rolledoverhit-sader histader hegotorganizedhit-zaken hidzaden hegrewoldhit-calem hictalem hetookpicturesofselfhit-ʃamer hiʃtamer hepreservedhimself

Metathesis:Hume’saccount

1. Thesequenceinvolvesacousticfeaturesthatcanspreadovermorethanonesegment,makingtheirassignmenttoasegmentdifficult.

2. Listeners(andspeakers)tendtointerpretambiguoussequencesintheordertheyaremorefamiliarwith—thesequencethatismorecommoninthelanguage.

Otherchangesmotivatedbyphonotactics

Figure1:PepsiaddusedinArgentinafrom2010.Theaddsays‘drinkPecsi,save.’Downbelowitsays‘drinkPepsialso’.

Spanishsyllable-finalobstruents

FinallabialC:concepto,concepción ‘concept’‘conception’obtener ‘obtain’

FinalvelarC:acción [ks] ‘action’ exacto [ks] ‘exact’técnico [kn] ‘technical’ fragmento [gm]proyecto [kt] ‘project’ signatura [gn]

Brown2006pursuedthehypothesisthatthelowfrequencycodaisreplacedbyahigherfrequencyone.

Brown’spointisthatwhenphonotacticsequencesarerare,speakers/listeners/learnersmayreinterpretthemassequencesthataremuchmorecommon.

Othernon-lenitionchanges

Vowelepenthesishappensinconsonantclustersthat(usually)involvesonorantconsonants.

Vowellengthening

Consonantgeminationhastwosources:CCassimilationrhythm

Table1:Atypologyofsoundchangebasedonsixfactors.