Phonetic and Phonological Changes Explained
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ScribdTranslationsPhonetic and Phonological Changes Explained
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ScribdTranslationsTOPIC 1: PHONETIC CHANGE AND PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE
Language is essentially an unstable reality, due to a varied range of circumstances.
(multicausation). Specifically, the following have been proposed for the phonetic change.
causes, among others:
External causes: all related to the physical aspects of sound
. Auditory difficulties in distinguishing certain sounds
. Articulatory difficulties: principle of least effort
. Historical and cultural reasons that changed the presence of certain
phonemes: presence of substrates (such as Basque, which modified the f-
Latin), cultisms (which allowed the recovery of groups like -kt-, -pt-, -ks-
…).
Internal causes: functional readjustments of the phonological system of the language
Many of the phonetic changes exhibit a certain regularity based on certain
phonetic conditions in the same period of time and geographical area. In the
The first studies of historical linguistics spoke here of phonetic laws.1, term
that has fallen into disuse in favor of regular phonetic change. These changes are not, without
embargo, absolutes, as they present exceptions (for various reasons, such as the
linguistic awareness of the speaker of the presence of prefixes and other boundaries
morphological)
Irregular changes are also known as sporadic changes.
metaplasm
Assimilation
Change of sound Dissimilation
Acoustic equivalence
Change of order Metathesis
Apheresis
Syncopation
Loss of sound
Apocope
Haplogy
Protasis
Sound insertion Epenthesis
Paragoge
Term adopted from the natural sciences, prevailing in the 19th century.
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1
a) Assimilation: A sound adopts a phonetic feature present in a neighboring sound
(in spoken language). It can occur both in the mode of articulation (e.g.
voicing of stops in intervocalic position) as in the point of
articulation (e.g. comde>conde). It can be:
. Assimilation in contact (between continuous or adjacent sounds):
i. Progressive assimilation: Change the second sound:
woman > feman > fr. ant. woman
pigeon > *dove > dove
lead > *lead > lead
ii. Regressive assimilation or anticipation: Change the first sound:
comde>conde
seven
bear
iii. Reciprocal or double assimilation: Both sounds change,
mutually assimilating. The paradigm examples are the
monophthongizations of Latin diphthongs or the voicing of
intervocalic voicelessness (both vowels influence each other)
consonant
taurus > bull > bull
cuba
. Distant assimilation (between non-contiguous sounds). For Lloyd
(1993), vocal harmony and metaphony are the same phenomenon, while
that Quilis (1993) differentiates them:
[Link] harmony: The presence of a vowel in the root
it conditions the timbre of the remaining vowels of other morphemes.
According to Quilis, it occurs only at the morphological and lexical level.
[Link] inflection: Modification of the vowel timbre by
influence of another neighbor.
I did
I was able > I could
smallpox
ceruela
2
iii. Lloyd gives examples of consonants that assimilate at a distance,
like the [Link] >chercher.
b) Dissimilation: A sound loses an articulatory feature that it shares with another.
neighbor sound to distinguish itself from it. The dissimilation can be so extreme that
one of the sounds is lost. It usually occurs more frequently in liquids and
nasal sounds, although it can also occur in vowels:
. man > all > man
. arbore >[Link], esp.árbol
. peregrine > fr. ant.pélerin
. Bologna
. howl
. neighbor
. Barcelona
. sartōre > tailor (strange accent; believed to be a Catalanism)
. arātru > aradro > arado
c) Acoustic equivalence: Change of sound due to having sound characteristics (in
issue of formants) similar (between the original sound and the final one).
. good
. grandfather
. needle>abuja
. something>argo
. medlar
d) Metathesis: Change of position of a sound within the word. It can be
reciprocal metathesis (if two sounds are exchanged):
. miracle
. danger
. parabola > parabola > word
. swamp > forest
simple metathesis (when only one sound changes):
. to press
. pōpulu > *plōppu > [Link], [Link].
. manger
. to break
The metathesis between contiguous sounds is called inversion:
3
. retina > *redna > rein
. spatula > blade > back
. widow
. forget
. puff pastry
e) Apheresis: Loss of sound(s) at the beginning of a word
. ἀποθήκη>apot(h)ēca >[Link], [Link]
. almsgiving > alms
f) Syncope: Loss of sound(s) within a word:
. comde
. miracle
. man > everything
. inheritance
. to litigate > to deal
g) Apocope: Loss of sound(s) at the end of a word:
. sun
. their
. red
. shoe > sock > coat
. some
. first
Haplology: Simplification of two contiguous similar syllables into one.
. tragicomic
. idolatry
. parallelepiped
i) Prothesis: Addition of sounds at the beginning of a word:
. school
. sword
. spirit
. station
j) Epenthesis: Addition of sounds within a word. The sound that is introduced
It is called epenthetic, intrusive or parasitic. If it is a vowel, it can
to be called the process anaptixis.
. humerus > *omro > shoulder
4
. man > all > man2
. light > flame > fire
. phaseolus > bean
. star
. scrub sponge
. fortitia > fr. [Link] > fortrece
. treasure
. spot
. campidoglio
. juggler
. calavera
Paragoge: Addition of a vowel to the end of a word3.
. Spoon
Phonological processes: Unlike the previous changes, phonological processes
they are motivated by the phonological system of the language itself. The most important
son
a) Phonologization: Emergence of a new phonological opposition in the system.
It usually originates from the previous existence of allophones of a phoneme.
that become two distinct phonemes. (e.g. the difference between plosives
and palatalized occlusives in Latin.
b) Desphonologization: Loss of the distinctive value of two phonemes, leading to
a single phoneme with two allophones (e.g. difference between /b/ and /v/; yeísmo; fusion
of sibilants).
c) Transphonologization or rephonologization: Transfer of the opposition to another
different place of the system (e.g. the opposition /ŝ/ (= /ʦ /) : /š/ (= /ʃ /) gave rise to the
opposition /θ/ : /x/
d) Coalescence: Appearance of a new phoneme by combination of two sounds
contiguous (that do not disappear from the system): (e.g./k/ + /t/ > /ʧ /; or /n/ + /j/ > /ɲ /).
e) Splitting: Segmentation of a phoneme into two successive articulations: (e.g. /kw/
> [k] + [w]; /gwwhat > cual; language > lengua.
2
All the manuals consider this process an exclusive case of epenthesis (of the group -br-), not of
dissimilation (m'n > m'r). They do not explain what has happened with the -n-.
Very common at the end of a verse in medieval metric (women and men / through the windows, Cid)
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The phonological change is favored by two systematic factors:
1. Economy: Phonological systems tend to distinguish the maximum number of
phonemes using the minimum resources. In this way, a system is preferred
decorrelations, that is, formed by bilateral propositions. Thus, from chaos
what the medieval system entailed (with many features but with few
correlations) it moved to the modern phonological system, which presents a greater
number of correlations (except in the palatal area).
[Link] performance: It consists of the capacity of a phonological opposition.
to allow opposing many words of the lexicon. For example, the oppositions p/b,
t/d or ɾ /r have a high functional performance, allowing the opposition of a
a large number of minimum pairs.
Changes that are not related to phonetic or phonological processes:
a) Analogy: Change in one word due to similarity with the change in another word
with which it is semantically or morphologically linked.
. mother-in-law influences daughter-in-law.
regular intermediate
. right>right (regular) influences over left>left (with one step
intermediate regular left.
. first
. mobile>furniture(regular) influences on furnished>furnish.
b) Popular etymology: Phonetic change caused by a false association
semantics
. necromancy 'evocation of the dead' > necromantia > nigromantia (by
black
. tangerine>mandarina (for mandarin)
. verruculu>verrojo>cerrojo(porcerrar)
