Sound Change Article Index for
Sound 		Website Links For
Sound 		 

Information About

Sound Change
  CATEGORIES ABOUT SOUND CHANGE
   
historical linguistics
   
phonology
   
sound laws
   
APPAREL
BABY
BEAUTY
BOOKS
CAR TOYS
CELL PHONES
DVD'S
ELECTRONICS
GOURMET FOOD
GROCERIES
HEALTH & PERSONAL
HOME & GARDEN
JEWELRY
MUSIC
MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
OFFICE PRODUCTS
SOFTWARE
SPORTING GOODS
TOOLS & HARDWARE
TOYS
VIDEO GAMES
SHOPPING HOME
MORE SHOPPING...



Sound change or '''phonetic change''' is a historical process of language change consisting in the replacement of one speech sound or, more generally, one phonetic feature by another in a given phonological environment. Sound change is supposed to be ''regular'', which means that it should be expected to apply mechanically whenever its structural condition is met, irrespective of any non-phonological factors (such as the meaning of the words affected). Hence the somewhat hyperbolic term '''sound law''', introduced in the 19th c. and still applied traditionally to some of the historically important sound changes, e.g. ).

Each sound change is limited in space and time. It means it functions within a specified area (only in some Dialect s / Ethnolect s) and within a specified period of time. These limitations are one of the reasons for which some scholars refuse using the term "sound law" (asserting that laws should not have such spatial and temporal limitations) and replace it with phonetic rule.

Sound change is part of the larger process of language change.


The formal notation of sound change:


::A > B

:is to be read, "A changes into (or is replaced by, is reflected as, etc.) B". It goes without saying that A belongs to an older stage of the language in question, whereas B belongs to a more recent stage. The symbol ">" can be reversed:

::B < A

:"(more recent) B derives from (older) A"

For example,

  • t > Rot. f



Unless a change operates unconditionally (in all positions), we have to specify the context in which it applies:

::A > B /X__Y

:= "A changes into B when preceded by X and followed by Y." For example:

::It. b > v / {Link without Title} __ {Link without Title}

:= "Intervocalic (inherited from Latin) became [v in Italian" (e.g. in ''caballum, dēbet'' > ''cavallo'' 'horse', ''deve'' 'owe (3sg.)'

::PIr. > [+cont /[__,-voice]C

  • pr, ---pt > Proto-Iranian ---fr, ---ft (features not mentioned explicitly in the formulation of the change, such as the place of articulation, are assumed not to change).


If the symbol "#" stands for a word boundary (initial or final), the notation "/__#" = "word-finally", and "/#__" = "word-initially". For example:

::Gk. {Link without Title} > ∅ /__#

:= "Word-final stops were deleted in Greek."


Rules of sound change


The following statements are used as heuristics in formulating sound changes as understood within the Neogrammarian model. However, for modern linguistics, they are not taken as inviolable rules; rather, they are seen as guidelines.

Sound change has no memory: Sound change does not discriminate between the sources of a sound. If a previous sound change causes X,Y > Y (features X and Y merge as Y), a new one cannot affect only original X's. If it helps, think of a stampede of animals, each erasing its predecessor's footprints.

Sound change ignores grammar: A sound change can only have phonological constraints, like X > Z in unstressed syllables. It cannot drop final W, except on adjectives, or the like. The only exception to this is that a sound change may or may not recognise word boundaries, even when they are not indicated by Prosodic clues. Also, sound changes may be regularized in inflectional paradigms (such as verbal inflection), in which case the change is no longer Phonological but Morphological in nature.

Sound change is exceptionless: If a sound can happen at a place, it will. It affects all sounds that meet the criteria for change. Apparent exceptions are possible, due to Analogy and other regularization processes, or another sound change, or an unrecognized conditioning factor. This is the traditional view, expressed by the Neogrammarians. In past decades it has been shown that sound change doesn't necessarily affect all the words it in principle could. However, when a sound change is initiated, it usually expands to the whole Lexicon , given enough time.

Sound change is unstoppable: Nobody knows why, but ''all'' languages vary from place to place and time to time. Writing does not keep languages from changing. This would be true if we learnt languages from reading books. We do not. We learn our native tongue by imitating the speakers in our environment. Only Dead Language s are immune to sound change. Perhaps the best explanation is to note that ''everything'' changes, and language is one part of everything.


Types of sound change


Sound change is informally divided into influenced and '''spontaneous'''. Influenced sound changes are sound changes affected by adjacent sounds. Spontaneous sound changes are the opposite. There is some overlap between the two types.


Spontaneous sound change


The "Sound Laws" of Grimm and Verner and others are spontaneous sound changes. Another spontaneous sound change transformed Old English into Middle English . The collapse of many of Middle English's consonant clusters is also a spontaneous sound change. For example, Middle English [kn >[n] in Modern English.


Conditioned sound change


There are several types of conditioned sound change, that is, sound changes that occur due to specific conditioning factors.

  • Assimilation : One sound becomes more like another, or two sounds become more like each other. Example: the and [b in "cupboard" became a single [b].


  • ''bite''.


  • Metathesis : Two sounds switch places. Example: Old English ''thridda'' has become Modern English ''th'''ir'''d''.


  • Tonogenesis : Syllables come to have distinctive pitch countours. Final consonants lenite, with stops becoming and fricatives becoming . These sounds affect the pitch contour of the previous syllable, and at some point, speakers take the countours (i.e., tones) as primary, rather than the consonants, which are subsequently lost.


  • Liaison : The introduction of a sound between words. Examples: French "il y a" becomes "y a t-il" when inverted. The postvocalic in some English dialects is pronounced only if the following word starts with a vowel.


  • Elision , Apocope , and Syncope : All losses of sounds. Elision is the loss of unstressed sounds, apocope is the loss of final sounds, and syncope is the loss of medial sounds. Elision example: in the southeastern United States, unstressed schwas tend to drop, so "American" is not but . Apocope example: the Old French word for "state" is "estat," but the "s" has dropped since then, yielding, "état." Syncope example: the final in Middle English words was pronounced, but was lost, and is only retained in spelling as "silent ''e''."


  • Epenthesis : The introduction of a sound between others. Example: in some dialects of English, a is introduced between and , like in ''prince'' .


  • Prothesis : The addition of a sound. It differs from liaison in that prothesis always affects a single word, whereas liaison depends on other words. Example: /s/ + stop clusters in Latin gained a preceding /e/ in Old Spanish and Old French; hence, the Spanish word for "state" is "estado," deriving from Latin "status."


  • Haplology : The loss of a syllable because an adjacent syllables is similar or identical. Example: Old English "Anglaland" became Modern English "England", or the common pronunciation of ''particularly'' as ''particuly''. This change usually affects commonly used words. The word haplology itself might reduce to ---haplogy if it were common enough to be affected by this change.




EXAMPLES OF SPECIFIC HISTORICAL SOUND CHANGES