phonological changes Flashcards
metathesis
The transposition of sounds or syllables in a word or of words in a sentence. Most commonly, it refers to the interchange of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis.
syncope
When a vowel in the middle of a word is cut out
Loss of a consonant or vowel in the middle of
syllable: “mortuo” > “morto”.
metathesis latin to spanish example
Miraculum -> miraglo -> milagro
elision
the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in a + el = el ).
apocope
loss of final unstressed vowel
assimilation
Two sounds are involved, and one becomes more like the other. The assimilating phoneme picks up one or more of the features of another nearby phoneme.
3 types of assimilation
a) progressive, when a preceding sound absorbs the following (mb > m:
“palumba” > “paloma”);
b) regressive or anticipatory (more frequent), when the preceding sound is
assimilated to the following (pt > tt > t: “septe” > “siete”);
c) mutual / reciprocal , when two sounds influence each other and the result is an
intermediate (ai > ei >e: carraria > carraira > carreira, o>oi> ue: porro>poirro>puerro)
dissimulation
. Process in which two sounds are involved, and one
becomes less like the other. The dissimilating phoneme loses one or more of
the features it shares with another nearby phoneme. The two phonemes become
more dissimilar as a result either by replacement or elimination: formosum >
*hormoso > hermoso; arborem > arbor > árbol. Dissimilation in liquids and nasals is
frequent in Spa.
4 types of metathesis
a) reciprocal (“parabola” > “palabra”, “animalia” > “alimaña”), or
b) simple (“integrare” > “entregar”, “crepare” > “quebrar”).
c) contiguous or ‘en contacto’ (“vidua” > “viuda”) or
d) discontinuous or ‘a distancia’ (“parabola” > “palabra”, “animalia” >
“alimaña”).
metaphony
a class of sound change in which one vowel in a word is influenced by another in a process of assimilation.
Haplology / haplología.
The fusion of two syllables into one because
they are similar o equal: “idololatria” > “idolatría. It can be considered a type of di- or assimilation
epethesis
addition of a sound in the middle of a word to
facilitate the pronunciation of sounds that share a feature and are
contiguous. It is a way to prevent assimilation or dissimulation: *coronica
(crónica); m’n > mbr (ómine > óm’ne > ómbre, but also ‘ome’).
paragogue
the addition of a sound or a syllable to the end of a word.
In Sp normally an –e which restitues the final –e (ethimological or not):
“felice” for “feliz”, ‘lope’ for ‘lop’ (
Prothesis / Prótesis
Adition of a soundo at the beginning of a word.
For ex.: s + consonant (s liquid) added an “i” to facilitate the
pronuncation: “sperare” > “isperare” > “esperar”
graphic ç
The graphic ç eems to represent the /ts/ phoneme in intervocalic position, an affricate which was later weakened to a fricative.
why did ç become z?
Since in terms of the sonority scale, affricates are less sonorous, and expend more energy, the process of lenition took place, and the sound /dz/ came to be used in intervocalic position, represented by a “z” in orthography
the loss of one or more sounds from the beginning of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel, thus producing a new form called an aphetism
apheresis
analogical extension
The generalisation of a morpheme or relation which already exists in the language into new situations or forms
analogical levelling
Where the number of allomorphs that a morphological form has is reduced, so forms which formerly underwent alternations no longer do after the change.
An English example would be where in some dialects of English strong verbs (e.g. throw/threw/throwed) have been levelled to the weak verb pattern (throw/throwed/throwed).
