Sound Change: Origins, Regularity, and Assimilation
Unit 4: Sound Change
Sound change is the appearance of a new phenomenon in the phonetic/phonological structure of a language.
Origin and Spread of Sound Changes: Two Views
- Neogrammarian: Sound change is mechanical and relentless and admits no exceptions.
- Lexical Diffusion: (a more satisfactory answer) Not all words are affected by a change simultaneously. Changes eventually fizzle out, and some words are left unaffected.
The Nature of Sound Change
- Regularity: regular vs. sporadic sound changes
- Context Dependency: conditioned and unconditioned sound changes
Regularity
Historical linguistics often splits sound changes into two groups:
- Regular Sound Changes: systematic changes. Nowadays, we believe it is an overstatement to say that sound changes are completely regular, but we still consider that there are certain sound changes that are highly regular. E.g.: voicing in a voiced environment.
- Sporadic Sound Changes: Affect few words and are unpredictable. Fox but vixen < OE fox and fyxen. The ME /v/ in vixen is sporadic.
Context Dependency
- Conditioned Sound Changes: Take place in a specific phonetic environment. Umlaut (a sound change affecting back and low vowels which undergo fronting and raising respectively due to the influence of a following front vowel).
- Isolative or Unconditioned Changes: Take place in all environments in which sounds occur. GVS (sound change affecting long vowels).
Goals of Sound Changes
Ease of pronunciation: certain combinations of sounds are easier to pronounce than others. Languages have constraints on sound combinations, limiting the speakers’ ability to produce a sequence of sounds as one syllable.
Assimilation
Assimilation: a sound becomes more similar to an adjacent sound in:
- Voice
- Manner of articulation
- Place of articulation
It is motivated by ease of articulation. Assimilation can be studied from 3 points of view:
The Direction of Assimilation
- Regressive Assimilation: OE wifman > wimman. One sound reaches back to affect the preceding one, as the speaker anticipates the articulation to come. So, it comes to resemble the sound that follows it, becoming identical or very alike, in respect to their articulatory features: voice, manner, and place of articulation.
- Progressive Assimilation: Gmc *wulno > *wullo > OE wull. A sound reaches forward to affect the following sound that becomes like the one that precedes it.
Extent of Assimilation
- Total Assimilation: OE wifman > wimman. A sound comes to resemble an adjacent sound, becoming identical, sharing the same articulatory features: voice, manner, and place of articulation.
- Partial Assimilation: Latin in + primere > imprimere. Two sounds become more alike in respect to some articulatory features while remaining distinct. The n- of the prefix changes its place of articulation to match the bilabial quality of the following p.
The Relation of the Assimilating Sound with its Environment
- Immediate Assimilation: E.g., attain < Latin ad + tangere ‘touch.’ The sounds involved in the assimilatory process are contiguous.
- Distant Assimilation: PIE *penkʷe > Latin kʷinkʷe; Latin ne hil(-um) > nihil
The sound to which another sound assimilates is usually the immediately adjacent one, but it may also be a sound in the neighboring syllable. In the case of distant assimilation, the two sounds are not adjacent.
Assimilatory changes: Regressive assimilation, Progressive assimilation, Total assimilation, Partial assimilation, Immediate assimilation, Distant assimilation, Palatalization, Umlaut.
Umlaut in Old English
Vowels move directly forward or forward and up in the mouth, due to the influence of a high-front vowel or a semi-vowel in the following syllable.
- A vowel undergoes a process of fronting or raising when followed by /i, i:, j/ in the following syllable.
- In this process, the speaker anticipates a high palatal sound, / i, j/ in the following syllable by fronting or raising the vowel that comes to resemble in articulation the /i or j/.
The Legacy of Umlaut in Modern English
- Irregular plural: tooth > teeth
- Comparatives: old > elder
- Verbs formed from nouns: food / feed
- Verbs derived from adjectives: full / fill
- Adjectives derived from nouns: Angel / English