Sound Changes

Prof. Julia NeeComparative Linguistics

Spring 2014, LaSalle University

The Importance of Sound Changes

• Useful in the comparative method of determining how languages are related

• Helpful in discovering which words are loanwords from other languages

• Used to trace the evolution of languages from a common proto-language by comparison of how sounds shifted from the original form to the modern form

Vowels

Places of Articulation

IPA Consonants

The Speech String

• Speech is seamless:– The good can decay many ways.– The stuffy nose can lead to problems.– Some others I’ve seen.

• Sounds of a word cannot be completely separated; they blend into one another

Swahili

• Watotowaafrikayamasharikiwanapendasanakusomanakuchezawatotowadogowanaanzamasomokatikashulezachekecheabaadayashuleyachekecheawaohuendashuleyamsingiwatotohusomashuleyachekecheakwamwakammojaaumiakamiwili.

Swahili

• Watoto wa Afrika ya Mashariki wanapenda sana kusoma na kucheza. Watoto wadogo wanaanza masomo katika shule za chekechea. Baada ya shule ya chekechea wao huenda shule ya msingi. Watoto husoma shule ya chekechea kwa mwaka mmoja au miaka miwili.

• Children in East Africa like to study and play. Small children begin their studies in kindergarten. After kindergarten, they go to elementary school. They go to kindergarten for one or two years.

The Speech String

1. Mabasiyakuendamjini yakowapi?

2. Hoteliyanguikowapi?3. Kituochabasikikowapi?4. Vipininawezakuendakit

uochatreni?5. Naulikiasigani?

1. Where are the buses to the city?

2. Where is my hotel?3. Where’s the bus

station?4. How do I get to the

train station?5. What’s the fare?

The Speech String

1. Mabasi ya kuenda mjini yako wapi?

2. Hoteli yangu iko wapi?3. Kituo cha basi kiko

wapi?4. Vipi ninaweza kuenda

kituo cha treni?5. Nauli kiasi gani?

1. Where are the buses to the city?

2. Where is my hotel?3. Where’s the bus

station?4. How do I get to the

train station?5. What’s the fare?

Phoneme Inventory

• Each language has a particular set of phonemes that it uses

• Acceptable Patterns:ptak drau hladuprast sram mglavlas flin dnomrtut tolp nyip

Syllable Structure

• Phonemes are assembled into Syllables

• Languages have their own rules about how syllables can be built– English: Rime can be V + C (C) (C)– Japanese: C + V

Phonetics / Phonemics

• The sounds that we have stored in our heads change before they come out of our mouths

• Phones = the sounds that actually occur• Phonemes = the ideas that are stored in our

heads• How are phonetics and phonemics different?– Some phones are stored the same way

phonemically– ‘t’ sound of ‘but’ vs. ‘butter’

How are phones and phonemes different?

• What are the sounds in “tap” and “pat”?• Different ‘p’: /tæp/ and /phæt/• Use minimal pairs to find phonemes:– /cæt/ vs. /cot/– /como/ vs. /cono/

• If you can’t find minimal pairs, then you may have two allophones of a phoneme!

Let’s try…

• Does /ŋ/ occur in your dialect of Spanish? Where? Is it a phoneme or an allophone?

• What is the distribution of the flapped vs. the trilled ‘r’?

Phonetic Rules

• Rules can be applied to the phonemes stored in our heads based on their environments

• The result is different phonetic outputs• Multiple rules can apply to the same word

The Regularity Principle

• Sound change is regular– The change takes place whenever the sound or

sounds which undergo the change are found in the circumstances or environments that condition the change

– Spanish: p > b / V_V (“p” becomes “b” between vowels)

• Essential to our ability to reconstruct proto-languages

Conditioned / Unconditioned

• Conditioned changes: changes that take place only in certain contexts– Ex: p > b / V_V

• Unconditioned changes: changes that take place generally, no matter what sounds are around it– Ex: ly > y in Latin American Spanish (calye > caye)

Let’s try…

• Apply the rule and determine which words are pronounced in the same way:– C > [+voiced] / V_V

Caddy Slinking RazorCatty Slinging Racer/Kɑdi/ /slɪŋkɪŋ/ /reɪzər//Kɑti/ /slɪŋgɪŋ/ /reɪsər/

Phonemic / Non-Phonemic (Allophonic)

• Phonemic Changes: affect the inventory of phonemes

• Non-Phonemic (Allophonic) Changes: don’t affect the phonemes in the language; shift in pronunciation only– Ex: t > ɾ / V _ V– Flaps don’t exist anywhere else in English, so we

don’t even realize we have that sound!• We will focus on PHONEMIC changes

Merger

• A, B > B or A, B > C– ly, j > j (Latin American Spanish)– e, o, a > a (Sanskrit)

Sanskrit Latin PIE Definition

Ad- Ed- *ed ‘to eat’

Avi- Ovi- *owi ‘sheep’

Ajra- Ager *aˆgro- ‘field’

Dent *dent ‘tooth’

Duo *dwo ‘two’

Ab *apo ‘away, from’

Merger

• Mergers are irreversible• Once a merger is complete, children learn the

new sound• Ex: b, p > b– Bebi > bebi– Papi > babi

• A separation of b and p would end up being distributed differently: b > p / _a

Split

• Splits follow mergers• In splits, the sounds in question don’t change,

but their phonetic status is changed because of the merger of sounds in their environment

Split: an examplemouse mice foot feet

Stage 1 (no changes) /mu:s/[mu:s]

/mu:s-i/[mu:s-i]

/fo:t/[fo:t]

/fo:t-i/[fo:t-i]

Umlaut /mu:s/[mu:s]

/mu:s-i/[my:s-i]

/fo:t/[fo:t]

/fo:t-i/[fø:t-i]

Loss of –I /mu:s/[mu:s]

/my:s/[my:s]

/fo:t/[fo:t]

/fø:t/[fø:t]

1. Nasal A. Air stops completely, pressure builds, then pressure is released

1. Nasal A. El aire se bloquea completamente, la presión aumenta, y luego se suelta

2. Plosive B. Friction is created, but air continues to flow

2. Oclusiva B. Se crea fricción, pero sigue el flujo de aire

3. Fricative C. Brief, repeated stops; airflow causes vibration

3. Fricativa C. Bloque del aire repetida por poco tiempo; causa vibración

4. Approximant D. Sounds that are actually produced

4. Aproximante D. Los sonidos que se realizan verdaderamente

5. Tap/Flap E. Concepts for sounds that are stored in our brains

5. Vibrante simple E. Los conceptos para sonidos como se guardan en la mente

6. Trill F. Air goes around the sides of the tongue, but not through the center of the mouth

6. Vibrante múltiple F. El aire sale por los lados de la lengua, pero no por el centro de la boca

7. Lateral G. Air flows through the nasal cavity

7. Lateral G. Aire sale por la fosa nasal

8. Phones H. Brief stop, no buildup of pressure

8. Fonos H. Bloque corto, no aumenta la presión

9. Phoneme I. Vocal cords vibrate 9. Fonemas I. Vibración de cuerdas vocales

10. Minimal Pair J. Obstructs airway, but does not create friction

10. Par mínimo J. Bloquea el aire, pero no crea fricción

11. Voiced K. Two words that differ by only one phone

11. Sonoro K. Dos palabras que se distinguen con un solo fono

Draw a Syllable Diagram

• [trust]

Review from Tuesday

• Is it phonetic or phonemic?• Is it conditioned or unconditioned?

• t > ɾ / V _ V• ly > y

Assimilation

• One sound becomes more similar to another• Change is brought about by a neighboring

sound• Total – Partial– Total: one sound becomes another sound;

Caribbean Spanish: h > C / _C– Partial: one sound takes one some of the

characteristics of another; English: d > t / [-voiced]_

Other Types of Common Sound Changes

• Deletions• Epentheses or insertions• Compensatory lengthening• Metathesis• Palatalization• Voicing• Devoicing

Chain Shifts

• When several sound changes take place that are interrelated

• Theory is that sound systems tend to be “symmetrical” or “natural”

• If they aren’t, they have a ‘gap’ and they tend to change in order to fill the gap

• This can create a new gap that needs to be filled

Pull and Push Chains

• Pull Chains (Drag Chains): one change creates a hole in the system, which is followed by another change that fills that hole by ‘pulling’ a sound from elsewhere in the system and changing it to fit the gap

• Push Chains: languages want to maintain differences between sounds in the system to make understanding easier; if a sound starts becoming similar to another sound, the sound it becomes similar to may move to a different space

Maximum Differentiation

• Justification for the push chain changes• Sounds in a sound system tend to be

distributed so that they’re as different as possible

• If a language has only 3 vowels, they’ll be i, u, and a

• If a language has four stops, they won’t be p, b, p’, ph

Grimm’s Law

• Shows systematic changes from PIE to Proto-Germanic

• (1) voiceless stops > voiceless fricatives:– *p > f, *t > θ, *k > h

• (2) voiced stops > voiceless stops– *b > p, *d > t, *g > k

• (3) voiced aspirated (murmured) stops > voiced stops– *bh > b, *dh > d, *gh > g

Grimm’s LawSpanish French English

*p>f Pie Pied Foot

*t>θ Tres Trois Three

*k>h Cien Cien Hundred

*d>t Diente Dent Tooth

Dos Deux Two

*g>k Grano Grain Corn

Sanskrit Latin English

*bh>b Bhratar Frater Brother

*dh>d Dha Facere Do, did

The Great Vowel Shift

• Have you ever wondered why English has such a crazy spelling system? It’s because of the Great Vowel Shift!

• Chain shift in pronunciation of English vowels between Chaucer (c. 1400) and Shakespeare (1564)

The Great Vowel ShiftSpelling Chaucer Shakespeare Modern English

Bite /bitə/ /bəit/ /bait/

Tide /tid/ /təid/ /taid/

Beat /bæt/ /bet/ /bit/

House /hus/ /həus/ /haus/

Boat /bɔt/ /bot/ /bout/

The Canterbury TalesHere bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury

1: Whan that aprill with his shoures soote2: The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,3: And bathed every veyne in swich licour4: Of which vertu engendred is the flour;5: Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth6: Inspired hath in every holt and heeth7: Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne8: Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,9: And smale foweles maken melodye,10: That slepen al the nyght with open ye11: (so priketh hem nature in hir corages);12: Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,13: And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,14: To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;15: And specially from every shires ende16: Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,17: The hooly blisful martir for to seke,18: That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

Here begins the Book of the tales of CanterburyWhen April with his showers sweet with fruitThe drought of March has pierced unto the rootAnd bathed each vein with liquor that has powerTo generate therein and sire the flower;When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,Quickened again, in every holt and heath,The tender shoots and buds, and the young sunInto the Ram one half his course has run,And many little birds make melodyThat sleep through all the night with open eye(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.And specially from every shire's endOf England they to Canterbury wend,The holy blessed martyr there to seekWho helped them when they lay so ill and weal

The Northern Cities Vowel Shift

• Involves the area of the US around the Great Lakes (GO CHICAGO )

• Studied by William Labov• Labov thinks that it started in the early 19th

century with the construction of the Erie Canal, when people migrated to the Great Lakes region speaking all different varieties of East Coast English

The Northern Cities Vowel Shift

Dialects of American English

• Are the dialects of English mutually intelligible?

• Why do you think that they are changing?• What factors would you think would cause the

reverse effect – that is, people speaking more alike, rather than less alike?

• What factors could lead to differentiation?