Sound Change
- breakthrough in comparative linguistics initiated by Danish scholar Rasmus Rask and German linguist Jacob Grimm
- research on relationship between Germanic languages and the rest of Indo-European
- in 1786 William Jones already said:
…the Gothic (Germanic) … though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit.
- Grimm and Rask investigated this relationship of correspondences between Germanic
and the classical I-E (Indo-European) languages
àtheir goal: to show Germanic is a part of the I-E language family
àinterest especially on differences in pronunciation of Germanic
- result was published in 1818 and 1819
àwork proved Germanic languages are part of I-E
àprovided set of systematic sound changes which differentiated Germanic languages
from classical languages
àsimilar set of sound changes differentiating German from the rest of Germanic
àset of systematic changes is called Grimm`s Law (in German: First Germanic
Sound Shift)
Grimm`s Law:
1. PIE voiceless stops à voiceless fricatives
2. PIE voiced stops à voiceless stops
3. PIE voiced aspirates à voiced stops
or à voiced fricatives
examples:
Latin Greek Sanskrit Gothic
1. pater pater pita fadar
2. decem deka dasa taihun
3. phero bharami baira
àchanges apply to hundreds of words
àGrimm’s Law is phonetically systematic (affecting all classes of stop
consonants)
àlexically systematic (applying to so many words)
- dual systematicity inspired many other Indo-Europeanists to start researching on sound change à since then many sound changes have been found in many other areas of the world
Exceptions to Grimm’s Law:
- was systematic but did not apply to all words:
Latin Engl.
dies day
- sometimes only applied to first part of the word
Latin Old Engl.
piscis fisc
spuo spiwan
- sometimes applied but not as predicted
Latin Gothic
pater fadar
- later scholars discovered exceptional forms were irrelevant
- correspondences between Latin ( dies ) and Engl. ( day ) were accidental
- actual root of Latin had a predicted outcome
- some apparent exceptions to Grimm’s Law were borrowings
à still exceptions to Grimm’s Law remained
Verner`s Law
- Karl Verner: Danish Linguist ( in 1877)
à exceptions were not really irregular but exhibited a regularity on their own
- took so long since his law did not modify Grimm`s Law but was a law on its own
- it required a look not only at Germanic but also at other languages such as Greek & Sanskrit
- as well as a look at the conditioning factor à voicing à location of the I-E stress or accent
- change responsible for voiced outcomes is called Verner`s Law
Verner`s Law:
1. voiced outcomes are found only in forms where preceding stop is not accented in
Sanskrit à elsewhere the voiceless stops occur
2. distinction between voiced and voiceless outcomes is not restricted to PIE voiceless
stops à also effects reflexes PIE ( s )
à Verner´s Law affects all Germanic fricatives, whether they reflect original ( s ) or result
from PIE voiceless stops by Grimm`s Law
Latin Old Engl.
pater fader
Verner`s Law (definition):
Proto-Germanic fricatives (including sibilant s ) become voiced if the following 3 conditions are met:
à they are not initial
à what precedes and follows them is voiced
à the PIE accent is not on the immediately preceding syllable
- very important because:
àlaw was conditioned by phonetic factors ( were not observed before)
àcaused linguists to pay attention to phonetic details
àpay attention to conditioning factors of sound change
àresult: better understanding of language history
The regularity hypothesis and the neogrammarians
- Verner`s Law explains “exceptions” to Grimm`s Law
- Grimm`s was known to operate with complete regularity
à neogrammarians set up thesis that sound change is absolutely regular
and “operates blindly”
- claim is known as Regularity Hypothesis
Regularity Hypothesis
- sound change in this context means change in sounds not conditioned by non-phonetic
factors
à there are all kinds of changes that could affect pronunciation of words but were not conditioned just by phonetic factors
example:
plural words such as cow à cows
but swine didn’t change to swows
à changes affect pronunciation but are not at all regular
à changes didn’t take place with regularity of Grimm’s Law
because they depend on – mental association of forms with each other
or – on meaning
- change sound properly understood operates without any regard to mental association
or meaning
- evidence sound change operates blindly:
in Southern U.S. English pen and pin are pronounced identically
àregular change before nasal [e] to [i]
- now you need to conclude from the context what is meant
- writing [pin]
- needle or stick [pin]
- to distinguish 2 words properly
à “absolutely regular” doesn’t mean a particular change under the same conditions
takes place anywhere and any time
à Grimm`s Law took place at some point between PIE & Germanic
& only took place at that time & in Germanic
à Regularity Hypothesis: statement about particular sound changes
( as historical events, limited by place, time, as well as language )
Types of Sound Change
1.Assimilation:
- change that simplifies
- process which makes process of pronunciation of a give sound more similar to another sound à simplifies pronunciation
- sound triggering may proceed or follow
example:
- assimilation ( derived from Latin elements)
- ad = to & similis = similar
- combined à assimilare = to make similar
à d ( of ad ) assimilated to following s
à adopted same articulation
Umlaut:
- common in early Germanic
- involves assimilation of root vowel to vowel occurring in suffix:
if entire suffix is lost, vowel change may take over function of original suffix
- in example indication of plurality
example:
Stage I Stage II Stage III
ku-iz kü-iz cy [kü]
- today: many “irregular” plurals owe their origin to umlaut ( footàfeet )
Palatalization
- also proceeds in 3 stages
- 1st stage à no assimilation
- 2nd stage à class of consonants ( mainly dentals and velar) assimilate to following
front vowel ( indicated by “y” )
- 3rd stage à some of the triggers are lost & palatalized consonant tends to become
a silibant or fricative
example:
stage I stage II stage III further changes
(= Latin) (=Proto-Romance I) (=Proto-Romance II) Mod. Fr.
faciat fak ya fak a > fac > fasse [fas( )]
Final Devoicing
- devoicing of the final consonants
- English is know to have final devoicing & shows slight degree
- In German change goes farther and leads to complete “merger” of voiced stops
and fricatives with voiceless counterparts
- change applies word finally
example:
Mod. German
Tag [tak] vs. Tage [tag ]
Weakening
- process that even more simplifies pronunciation
- relaxation, reduction, or even total omission of articulatory gestures
required to make particular sound
example:
- in A.E better is pronounced [ ber r]
à contact is made less firmly, resulting in a flap
- or [ bed r ] ( with voicing)
à switch from voicing to voicelessness and back to voicing eliminated
- or [ be r ]
à omission of all gestures that require to articulate [ t ]
- loss of speech sounds can happen under many circumstances
- e.g. loss of initial [ k ] before a nasal
example: Old Engl. Mod. Engl.
cnyht > knight [ n- ]
- loss is likely to happen at the end of words
example: Old Engl. Mod. Engl.
singan > sing
stanas > stones [ -n z ]
- lost of final syllables is responsible that English has lost most of its inflections
- ( before had endings to differentiate 4 noun cases – nominative, genitive, dative, &
accusative)
- only identical sounding remained à plural & genitive marker –s
à loss simplified pronunciation & whole inflection system
Epenthesis
- introduction of speech sounds
- either vowels or consonants
- especially common between nasals and following liquids
example: (Old Engl.) pun rian = ( to thunder )
pundrian
(Mod. Engl.) thunder
à motivation:
- nasals are pronounced with same articulation as voiced stops
( except passage to nose is left open to permit nasal resonance to be audible)
- blockage of your nose ( e.g. conditioned by cold ) = reduction of nasal resonance
- makes nasals sound like “dasals”
- as learning 1st language, nobody tells us how to articulate
( e.g. press your tongue tip firmly against the back of your teeth )
- we have to figure out ourselves how to articulate the sounds we hear
à reason for occasional examples of sound changes as a result from
misunderstandings
example: aestetic for aesthetic ( beautiful )
Great English Vowel Shift
- radically transformed English vowel system
- responsible for multiple phonetic values attached to English vowels
example:
- a, e, and i are pronounced [ ey ], [ i ] and [ay ]
- in contrast most European languages have [ a ], [e ] and [ i ]
- most accepted hypothesis assumes drag chain
- high vowels i and u first changed to diphthongs
à most likely [ y ] and [ w ]
- high vowel was empty and filled by long mid vowels
- empty position attracted long low vowels
example:
Fast, furious and faulty speech: Typically sporadic changes
- changes are notoriously irregular or sporadic
example:
ma ` am or bye
- ma ` am derived from madam
- not regular à we don’t say A`am for Adam
- & madam still coexists
- bye derived from God be ( with ) ye
- good be ( with ) ye ( for taboo reasons)
- final outcome:
good bye or bye
à limited to this expression
- irregular shortening developments are rather frequent in formulas of greeting or
leave-taking ( e.g. in expressions verbal politeness)
example:
Guten Morgen
- Guten Morgen
- Morgen
- Mo [ ]
- reduced pronunciation of this type is not limited to politeness expression
- also occurs in Fast or Allegro Speech
- mo [ ] is used as adverb “tomorrow”
- & is also used for the expression (Guten) Morgen
- fast speech is know for extensive and pervasive reduction of phonological structure
in general use:
- we filter out allegro forms and only use lento forms
à linguistic change only affects lento forms
reason:
- society expects us to be polite but we don’t want to lose much time
à we use short forms in combination with fast speech
Phonological reduction of Clitics
Clitics have the following characteristics:
- of reduced communicative significance
- don’t bear an accent on their own
- can not occur by themselves
- have to leave on another word ( host )
- somehow take position between full word and affixes
example:
n`t of can’t and hasn’t
`s of Mary’s at work
- with a slight break in utterance, can’t be pronounced on their own
- full form needs to be used instead
à Clitics have undergone a large variety of weakening and reduction
n`t and `s vs. not
has
is
à reduction originated from “down-graded” speech
- is less carefully monitored
- or communicative purpose is minor important
Gemination
- consonant doubling
- fairly transitory phenomenon
( the normal language does not have phonetic geminates)
example:
mma(r)vel s
- to express something is especially marvellous
Dissimilation
- makes similar sounds more different
example:
- common non-standard pronunciation of library à libary
- fist [ r ] dissimilates by disappearing
- in Sanskrit all but last several aspirated stops in a given word lost their aspiration
by assimilation
example:
PIE Sanskrit
bhudh-ye-toy budh-ya-te = ( is awake )
bhe-bhowdh-e bu-bodh-a = ( was awake )
Metathesis
- transportation of sounds within a given word
- has been frequent in the combination
vowel + liquid or liquid + vowel
- process war far from regular
example:
Old Engl. Mod. Engl.
frist first
bryde bird
[ aks ] or [ ks ] for ask
- dissimilation especially occurs
when people are tire, or drunk, or both
à ability to monitor speech production is reduced