Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere

Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere

Laurea Specialistica I anno

Corso di Filologia Germanica

Prof. Alessandra Molinari

Studentesse: Abderhalden Sandra, Laurenzi Paola 22.ottobre.2007

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SOUND CHANGE
Over time, the sounds of languages tend to change. Sound change is a major concern of historical linguistic. An understanding of sound changes plays also an important rule in the comparative method, in linguistic reconstruction, in internal reconstruction, in detecting leanwords, in determining whether a language is related to another.

Sound changes didn’t all take place at the same time: determining the chronology of the changes is important for working out the phonological history of a language.

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  PULL CHANGE: when a change creates a gap, it is followed by another change which fills the gap. The “pulled” sound is fitted to the neads of symmetry of the system.
  
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  PUSH CHANGE: languages want to maintain differences between sounds and the system in order to facilitate understanding.
  

The most important basic assumption in historical linguistics is that sound change is regular

 THE REGULARITY PRINCIPLE

 THE NEOGRAMMARIAN HYPOTHESIS

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  Sound changes can be:
  

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  REGULAR the change recurs generally, whenever the sound/sounds which undergo the change are found in the circustances/environment that condition the change.
  
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  SPORADIC the sound change in an arbitrary and unpredictable way.
  

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  CONDITIONED the change occurs generally and is note dependent on the phonetic context in which it occurs.
  
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  UNCONDITIONED the change takes place in certain context, more restricted and effects only some of the sound’s occurences.
  
  
  

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  NON-PHONEMIC/ALLOPHONIC the change does not alter the total number of phonemes in the language. There is no change in the number of distinctive sounds. It can be conditioned or unconditioned. Allophonic conditioned change: spanish dialect: n>ŋ/_# final n become velar nasal ŋ.
  
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  PHONEMIC the change affects the inventory of phonemes (the basic sound that native speakers hold to be distinct) by adding to or deleting from the number of phonemes/basic sounds of a language. It can be conditioned or unconditioned.
  

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  Merger (A,B > B or A,B > C) two (or more) distinct sounds merge into one leaving fewer distinc sounds in the phonological inventory than there was before the change. Mergers are irreversible. Later generations will not be able to restore the original distinctions.
  
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  Split (A > B,C) splits follows mergers: the merge of other sounds in their environment causes the phonemic status of the sounds involved in the splits to change from being predictable conditioned variants of a sound (allophonic) to unpredictable contrastive distinctive sounds. English: /n/ and /ŋ/ = allophonic variants, /ŋ/ before /k/ and /g/. /g/ merged with /θ/ /n/ and /ŋ/ in contrast, both can occur at the end of a word, but /ŋ/ only if in the past it was followed by /g/.
  
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  Secondary split (phonologization) the total number of phonemes in a language increases
  
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  Primary split (conditioned merger) allophones of a phoneme abbandons that original phoneme and joins some other phoneme instead. An allophone merges with some other already existing phoneme, but only in certain specific environment  the number of phonemes in the language remains inalterated.
  
  
  

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  Total the sound takes on all phonetic features of the other sound. Latin octo> Italian otto.
  
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  Partial the sound becomes just similar, not fully identical to the other. English inpossible>impossible.
  

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  Contact the sounds are immediately adjacent. Latin octo>Italian otto.
  
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  Distant (less common) non-adjacent sounds
  

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  Regressive the sound which changes comes before the one which influences it. Latin octo>Italian otto.
  
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  Progressive the sound which changes comes after the one which influences it. Walked  /wɔkt/, ed pronunced voiceless.
  

ASSIMILATION CHANGES

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  THE CHANGED SOUND CAN BECOME:
  - weaker in articulation
  - stronger in articulation
  - longer
  
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    compensatory lenghtening after the loss of a sound another sound becomes longer in order to compensate the loss. *gan s> Old English gōs > Modern English goos
    

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  shorter
  

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  DIFFERENCES IN SOUND LENGTH
  

- haplology: a repeted sequence of sounds is simplified to a simple occurrence. English: probably [probli]; German: Zauberererin > Zaubererin.

- breaking: a short vowel becomes a diphthong. *kald > Old English ceald (cold).

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  SOUNDS CHANGED IN ARTICULATION
  

- rhotacism: (rare) the sounds “s” and “z” become “r” between vowels or glides. West/Nord Germanic *z>r *hauzjan > Old High German hôren (hören).