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

 

 

-         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”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acoustically or auditorily conditioned changes

 

 

-         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