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LING 319 > LANGUAGE AND SOUND CHANGE > Flashcards

LANGUAGE AND SOUND CHANGE Flashcards

1
Q

definition

letter-to-sound correspondence

A

the way the word is written does/doesn’t look like how it sounds

orthography may or may not always be useful

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2
Q

what kind of change would the Northern Cities Shift be considered?

A

unconditioned, phonetic, and regular

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3
Q

conditioned vs unconditioned sound change

A
  • **conditioned ** = pronounciation is dependent on certain contexts and effects only some of the sounds occurences –> phonological change occuring in specific phonetic contexts
  • unconditioned = pronounciation shift across a language without being dependent on the surrounding phonetic context
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4
Q

phonemic vs non-pronemic sound change

A
  • phonemic = change in pronounciation within a language that alters the phonemic system
  • non-phonemic = a change in pronounciation at a phonetic level, but no changes in the phonemic level
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5
Q

regular vs sporadic sound change

A
  • regular = a change in all phonological environments
  • sporadic = replacement, over some arbitrary interval of time, of one phoneme in one place by another
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6
Q

merger vs split

A
  • merger = the loss of a contrast: two phonemes merge
  • split = the creation of a (new) contrast: sounds that were allophones become seperate phonemes
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7
Q

what is a conditioned merger (aka “primary split”)

A

an allophone (conditional variant) of one phoneme that merges with some other phoneme

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8
Q

what is a split (aka “secondary split” or “phonemicisation”)

A

an allophone becomes an independent phoneme when the conditioning environment is altered or lost
- merger/loss in the conditioning environment causes the allophonic distinction to become a phonemic distinction
- complementary distribution > overlapping distribution (=contrast)

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9
Q

what is lenition

A

when weakening occurs in a specific order relating to how consonant-like the sound is
- less consonant-like = muscle move less

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10
Q

what is excrescence

A

epenthesis of a plosive in between a nasal and another voiceless consinant: N_C
- e.g., Chom[p]sky instead of Chomsky

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11
Q

why does excrecense occur

A

nasals require oral closures and lowered velums, fricatives/trills require the velum to be lowered. The delay between those changes makes the plosive sound

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12
Q

Where is excrescence most frequent?

A

Excrescence is most frequent with [ns] clusters and also more frequent before [f] and [θ].

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13
Q

Is excrescence perceived across morpheme or syllable boundaries?

A

No, excrescence is not perceived across morpheme or syllable boundaries.

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14
Q

Why aren’t prince and prints the same in pronunciation?

A

They differ due to excrescence; prints has an excrescent [t] while prince does not.

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15
Q

What are two mechanisms of language change?

A

Diffusion (spreading innovation) and errors during transmission (misparsing the language perceived).

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16
Q

What is tonogenesis?

A

Tonogenesis is the development of phonological tone contrasts from laryngeal contrasts (e.g., voicing or aspiration) in nearby consonants.

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17
Q

What phonetic effect is associated with tonogenesis?

A

Voiced consonants lower F0 (low tone), while voiceless consonants raise F0 (high tone).

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18
Q

What is the difference between phonologization and phonemicization?

A

Phonologization refers to the process of a phonetic effect becoming systematic, while phonemicization refers to the effect becoming a contrastive feature in the phonological system.

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19
Q

What is rhotacism?

A

Rhotacism is a sound change where [s] or [z] becomes [ɹ] or [ɾ], often proposed as a type of lenition.

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20
Q

What is listener-based sound change?

A

Sound change originating from misperception by the listener, where the speech signal’s variability leads to errors in decoding.

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21
Q

What is hypocorrection in sound change?

A

Hypocorrection occurs when a listener fails to “undo” a contextual effect, interpreting it as an inherent property (e.g., tonogenesis).

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22
Q

What is hypercorrection in sound change?

A

Hypercorrection occurs when a listener mistakenly interprets an inherent property as a contextual effect and “undoes” it (e.g., dissimilation).

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23
Q

What is velar palatalization?

A

A sound change where /k/ > [tʃ] before high front vowels (e.g., /i/ or /j/), often due to perceptual reanalysis.

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24
Q

What did Guion (1998) find about velar palatalization?

A

Velar palatalization is conditioned by perceptual reanalysis of faster speech, where [k] before high front vowels is heard as [tʃ].

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25
What is the role of coarticulation in sound change?
Coarticulation can lead to assimilation or harmony patterns, where phonetic effects become phonological over time.
26
What is the significance of parsing the speech signal in sound change?
Listeners must parse and normalize the variable and messy speech signal, which can lead to hypo- or hypercorrection and subsequent sound changes.
27
What is misalignment of articulatory gestures?
Misalignment refers to when the movements of speech organs (like the tongue or lips) don't occur at the same time or in the same order as expected during speech production.
28
What is assimilation in terms of misalignment of gestures?
Assimilation is when one sound becomes more like a neighboring sound due to misalignment, often in terms of articulation or voicing.
29
What are the two types of assimilation?
**Progressive assimilation** – A sound influences a following sound (e.g., "dogs" /dɔɡz/). **Regressive assimilation** – A sound influences a preceding sound (e.g., "input" /ɪmpʊt/).
30
What is elision?
Elision is the omission of a sound in rapid speech due to misalignment or ease of articulation, such as pronouncing "camera" as "camra."
31
What is metathesis?
Metathesis is when sounds in a word switch places due to misalignment of articulatory gestures, such as "ask" becoming "aks."
32
What is vowel reduction?
Vowel reduction occurs when a vowel becomes centralized or reduced in quality, typically in unstressed syllables (e.g., "banana" or "sofa").
33
What is coarticulation?
Coarticulation happens when gestures for adjacent sounds overlap due to misalignment, causing subtle changes in articulation, like the influence of the "t" sound on the "w" sound in "twin."
34
What is assimilation in sound change?
Assimilation is when a sound becomes more like a neighboring sound. It can be partial or total, and regressive (anticipatory) or progressive (perseverative). It can also be local (contact) or long-distance (non-adjacent segments).
35
What is the difference between partial and total assimilation?
Partial assimilation is when a sound becomes somewhat like a neighboring sound, while total assimilation is when it becomes identical to the neighboring sound.
36
What is regressive (anticipatory) assimilation?
Regressive assimilation occurs when a sound is influenced by a following sound (e.g., "impossible" where "in-" becomes "im-" before "p").
37
What is progressive (perseverative) assimilation?
Progressive assimilation occurs when a sound is influenced by a preceding sound (e.g., "cats" where "s" is voiced as "z" after a voiced "d").
38
What is umlaut/metaphony?
Umlaut/metaphony is a type of regressive, non-adjacent assimilation between vowels, where a vowel changes to become more like a following vowel.
39
What is dissimilation?
Dissimilation is when two similar sounds become less alike. It can be classified similarly to assimilation (e.g., regressive, progressive, local, long-distance).
40
What is lenition/weakening?
Lenition is the weakening of a sound, such as degemination, spirantization, deaffrication, voicing, or debuccalization.
41
What is degemination?
Degemination is the shortening of a geminated (doubled) consonant.
42
What is spirantization?
Spirantization is the change of a plosive (stop) into a fricative (e.g., p > f).
43
What is deaffrication?
Deaffrication is the change of an affricate into a fricative (e.g., tʃ > ʃ).
44
What is voicing in sound change?
Voicing is when a voiceless sound becomes voiced, often in intervocalic or postvocalic positions (e.g., p > b).
45
What is debuccalization?
Debuccalization is when a consonant loses its oral constriction, often becoming a glottal stop (e.g., p, t, k > ʔ or s > h).
46
What is fortition/strengthening?
Fortition is the strengthening of a sound, such as changing a fricative or approximant into a stop or affricate. It is rarer than lenition and often occurs in prominent positions like word-initial or stressed syllables.
47
What is deletion in sound change?
Deletion is the loss of a segment (e.g., a sound disappearing entirely).
48
What is syncope?
Syncope is the deletion of a vowel in the middle of a word (e.g., "family" > "famly").
49
What is apocope?
Apocope is the deletion of a vowel at the end of a word (e.g., "name" > "nam").
50
What is epenthesis?
Epenthesis is the insertion of a sound into a word (e.g., "film" > "filum").
51
What is excrescence?
Excrescence is the insertion of a stop consonant, often between nasal and fricative sounds (e.g., "something" > "somethink").
52
What is coalescence?
Coalescence (or fusion) is when two sounds merge into one (e.g., "don't you" > "doncha").
53
What is compensatory lengthening?
Compensatory lengthening is when a vowel lengthens to compensate for the loss of a nearby consonant.
54
What is rhotacism?
Rhotacism is the change of s or z into r (e.g., Latin "flos" > Italian "fiore").
55
What is metathesis?
Metathesis is the rearrangement of sounds in a word (e.g., "ask" > "aks").
56
What is haplology?
Haplology is the deletion of a repeated sequence of sounds (e.g., "library" > "libry").
57
What is diphthongization?
Diphthongization is when a single vowel becomes a diphthong (e.g., e > ei).
58
What is monophthongization?
Monophthongization is when a diphthong becomes a single vowel (e.g., ai > a).
59
What is vowel raising?
Vowel raising is when a vowel becomes higher in the mouth (e.g., e > i).
60
What is vowel lowering?
Vowel lowering is when a vowel becomes lower in the mouth (e.g., i > e).
61
What is nasalization?
Nasalization is when a sound, typically a vowel, becomes nasalized (e.g., a > ã).
62
What is palatalization?
Palatalization is when a sound becomes palatal or postalveolar, often involving affrication (e.g., k > tʃ).
63
What is affrication?
Affrication is when a plosive becomes an affricate (e.g., t > ts).
64
What is assibilation?
Assibilation is when a coronal plosive turns into a sibilant (e.g., t > s or tʃ).
65
what is a chain shift in sound change
a series of interconnected sound changes where the modification of one speech sound triggers a subsequent change in another sound, causing a domino effect across multiple phonemes in a language, resulting in a new overall phonetic pattern; essentially, one sound moves into the space vacated by another, which then moves to fill a new space, and so on
66
what is a language universal in sound change
recurring patterns or tendencies observed across many different languages when sounds shift over time
67
# language universals vowel harmony
Vowels in a word tend to share similar features like backness or rounding.
68
# language universals palatalization
Sounds near the front of the mouth can become more palatalized when next to high front vowels
69
# language universals consonant cluster simplification
Complex consonant clusters often simplify over time.
70
# language universal unstressed vowel reduction
Vowels in unstressed syllables tend to become more centralized or reduced.
71
nasal + plosive must be _
heterorganic (different place of articulation)
72
nasal + fricative can be _
homorganic (same place of articulation)
73
what is phonologization
to move a phonetic effect into phonology
74
what is phonemitization
to treat as a phonemic contrast or difference; only when it becomes a phonemic contrast (in stage 3 of tonogenesis)

LING 319 (5 decks)

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