scholarly journals Vowel Raising in Nkpor Dialect: A Pattern of Sound Change

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn Ezinwanne Mbah ◽  
Chukwuma Onyebuchi Okeke
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Tape Recording ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Rapid Loss ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Vowel Raising ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
Auditory Data

This paper explores a pattern of phonological change known as vowel raising in the Nkpor dialect of the Igbo language. Using a corpus of conversational Nkpor speech collected from the respondents through tape-recording, we presented data from an authority analysis of the vowels and auditory data of vowel raising. The data support three main claims. First, the voiced palatal nasal /ɲ/ is elided. It claims that in a word consisting of two root verbs, the initial verb root contains any consonant and any vowel, and the second verb root contains the voiced palatal nasal /ɲ/ and a mid front vowel /e/, then, the voiced palatal nasal is elided. Second, after the elision, the mid vowel /e/ of the second verb is raised to a high front vowel /i/ or /ɪ/, agreeing with the vowel harmony rule. Third, Nkpor dialect goes beyond the raising of only vowels of the second verb. It further raises vowels of the first verb which are not high. The much more rapid loss of the voiced palatal nasal /ɲ/ and the consequent raising of the vowels are plausibly attributed to rapid speech, especially in construction and some sociolinguistic factors.

A production account of sound changes affecting diphthongs and triphthongs in Romance

Diachronica ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-197
Author(s):  
Daniel Recasens
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Carryover Effects ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Vowel Raising ◽  
Vocalic Sequences ◽  
Constraint Model ◽  
Adaptation Effects

This paper is an investigation processes of sound change (i.e., assimilations, dissimilations, elisions) affecting diphthongs and triphthongs derived from Latin mid low vowels in Romance. This analysis is carried out with reference to the Degree of Articulatory Constraint model of coarticulation according to which adaptation effects between consecutive segments in the speech chain, as well as their regressive or progressive direction, are determined by the requirements imposed by speakers upon the articulatory structures. Several findings are consistent with this theoretical framework, namely, assimilatory vowel raising in diphthongs and triphthongs appear to be facilitated by a homorganic onglide in accordance with the prominence of the carryover effects associated with the articulatory gestures for /j/ and /w/, and dissimilatory vowel lowering is not prone to be implemented in rising diphthongs with a (mid) high front vowel perhaps since speakers attempt to avoid vocalic sequences imposing high articulatory demands.

Perceptual constraints and phonological change: a study of nasal vowel height

1986 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 197-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Ohala ◽  
Patrice Speeter Beddor ◽  
Rena Arens Krakow ◽  
Louis M. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Nasal Vowels ◽  
Vowel Raising ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
Vowel Height

ABSTRACTTo address the claim that listener misperceptions are a source of phonological shifts in nasal vowel height, the phonological, acoustic and perceptual effects of nasalisation on vowel height were examined. We show that the acoustic consequences of nasal coupling, while consistent with phonological patterns of nasal vowel raising and lowering, do not always influence perceived vowel height. The perceptual data suggest that nasalisation affects perceived vowel height only when nasalisation is phonetically inappropriate (e.g. insufficient or excessive nasal coupling) or phonologically inappropriate (e.g. no conditioning environment in a language without distinctive nasal vowels). It is argued that these conditions, rather than the inherent inability of the listener to distinguish the spectral effects of velic and tongue body gestures, lead to perceptual misinterpretations and potentially to sound change.

scholarly journals Diachronic Study of Phonological Changes in Tiv Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Terfa Aor ◽  
Torkuma Tyonande Damkor
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Language Growth ◽  
Observation Method ◽  
Phonological Change

All levels of language analysis are prone to changes in their phonology, morphology, graphology, lexis, semantics and syntax over the years. Tiv language is not an exception to this claim. This study investigates various aspects of phonological or sound changes in Tiv language. This paper therefore classifies sound changes in Tiv; states causes of sound changes in Tiv and explores implications of sound changes. The research design used in this paper is purposive sampling of relevant data. The instrument used in this paper is the observation method in which the author selected words that showed epenthesis, deletion and substitution. It has been noted that the use of archaic spellings in the Modern Tiv literatures shows their ancientness. Phonological change is not a deviation but a sign of language growth and changes in spellings result in changes in sounds. The author recommends that scholars should write papers or critical works on lexical/morphological, syntactic, semantic, graphological changes in Tiv language. Students should write projects, dissertations and theses on language change and diachronic linguistics. This study introduces Tiv historical linguistics and diachronic phonology which serve as catalysts for the study of Tiv language. The understanding of Tiv sound change provides students with a much better understanding of Tiv phonological system in general, of how Tiv phonology works and how the phonemes fit together

scholarly journals Regressive Vowel Harmony in Libyan Arabic

2019 ◽  
pp. 36-50
Author(s):  
Yousef Mokhtar Elramli ◽  
Tareq Bashir Maiteq
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Skeletal Structure ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Third Person ◽  
The City

The aim of this paper is to study Regressive vowel harmony induced by a suffixal back round vowel in the Libyan Arabic dialect spoken in the city of Misrata. The skeletal structure in the collected words is a /CVCVC-/ stem followed by the third person plural suffix /-u/. Consequently, the derived form of the examined words becomes /CVCVCV/. Following a rule of re-syllabification, the coda of the ultimate syllable in the stem becomes the onset of the newly formed syllable (ultimate in the derived form). Thus, in the presence of the suffix /-u/ in the derived form, all vowels in the word must harmonise with the [+round] feature of /-u/ unless there is a high front vowel /i/ intervening. In such cases, the high front vowel is defined as an opaque segment that is incompatible with the feature [+round]. Syllable and morpheme boundaries within words do not seem to contribute to blocking the regressive spreading of harmony. An autosegmental approach to analyze these words is adopted here. It is concluded that there are two sources in underlying representations for regressive vowel harmony in Libyan Arabic. One source is floating [+round] and another source is [+round].

scholarly journals Exploring the role of token frequency in phonological change: evidence from TH-Fronting in east-central Scotland

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
LYNN CLARK ◽  
GRAEME TROUSDALE
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
East Central ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Motivating Factor ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
The Relationship

Recent research on frequency effects in phonology suggests that word frequency is often a significant motivating factor in the spread of sound change through the lexicon. However, there is conflicting evidence regarding the exact nature of the relationship between phonological change and word frequency. This article investigates the role of lexical frequency in the spread of the well-known sound change TH-Fronting in an under-researched dialect area in east-central Scotland. Using data from a corpus of conversations compiled over a two-year period by the first author, we explore how the process of TH-Fronting is complicated in this community by the existence of certain local variants which are lexically restricted, and we question to what extent the frequency patterns that are apparent in these data are consistent with generalisations made in the wider literature on the relationship between lexical frequency and phonological change.

The Germanic Verschärfung and Prosodic Change

Diachronica ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Richard Page
Keyword(s):  
Initial Stress ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Rhythmic Structure ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Phonological Change

SUMMARY This investigation of Germanic Verscharfung distinguishes between two types of phonological change. Sound change affects only the phonetic features of a segment whereas prosodic change consists of a change in the rhythmic structure of a language. The fixing of initial stress in Germanic is a prosodic change which conditions the gemination of intervocalic glides following short, previously unstressed vowels. However, the gemination of glides is irregular since prosodic change is phonetically abrupt but lexically gradual and may therefore lead to irregular changes on the segmental level. In contrast, the second stage of Germanic Verschärfung, the fortition of geminate glides to geminate obstruents in East and North Germanic, is an exceptionless sound change in which [-consonantal] becomes [+consonantal]. RÉSUMÉ Cette enquête de la Verschärfung germanique distingue entre deux types de changement phonologique. Tandis que le changement phonétique n'affecte que les caractéristiques phonétiques d'un segment, le changement prosodique transforme la structure rythmique d'une langue. L'introduction de l'accent initial dans la langue germanique est un changement prosodique qui entraîne la gémination des sons transitoires intervocaliques après une voyelle courte préalablement non-accentuée. Cependant, la gémination des sons transitoires est irrégulière, étant donné que le changement prosodique est phonétiquement abrupte, mais lexicalement graduel. Pour cette raison, le changement prosodique peut entraîner un changement irrégulier au niveau du segment. Par contre, la deuxième phase de la Verschärfung germanique, la transformation des sons transitoires géminés en occlusives géminées dans la langue germanique orientale et septentrionale, constitue un changement phonétique sans exception dans lequel [-consonne] devient [+consonne]. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG In dieser Untersuchung der germanischen Verschärfung werden zwei Arten von phonologischem Wandel unterschieden. Lautwandel betrifft nur die phonetischen Merkmale eines Segments, wahrend prosodischer Wandel die rhythmische Struktur einer Sprache verandert. Die Einführung des Initialakzents im Germanischen ist ein prosodischer Wandel, der die Verdop-pelung zwischenvokalischer Gleitlaute herbeiführt, wenn der vorangehende Vokal kurz und vorher unbetont war. Die Verdoppelung von Gleitlauten ist jedoch unregelmäßig, denn prosodischer Wandel ist phonetisch abrupt aber lexikalisch graduell. Deswegen kann prosodischer Wandel zu unregel-mäBigem Wandel auf der segmentalen Ebene führen. Andererseits ist die zweite Phase der Verschärfung, die Verstärkung von verdoppelten Gleitlauten zu verdoppelten Obstruenten im Ost- und Nordgermanischen, ein ausnahms-loser Lautwandel, in dem [-konsonantisch] zu [+konsonantisch] wird.

scholarly journals The Role of Anti-harmony in Learning Neutral Vowels

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Finley
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Grammar Learning ◽  
Artificial Grammar ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Learning Paradigm ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Back Vowel

The present study used an artificial grammar learning paradigm to explore the prediction that exposure to anti-harmony might help learners infer that a neutral vowel in a vowel harmony language is transparent. Participants were exposed to a back/round harmony language with a neutral vowel [a]. This neutral vowel either always selected a back vowel suffix,  always selected a front vowel suffix, or selected both front-and back vowel suffixes, in adherence to anti-harmony. Results indicated that exposure to a back/round harmony with the neutral vowel selecting either back vowel suffixes, or both front and back vowel suffixes, could induce a bias towards transparent vowels. Assuming that participants inferred that the centralized [a] paired with [o] harmonically, then the predictions that exposure to anti-harmony could induce a bias towards a transparent vowel interpretation were borne out. However, the bias towards a transparent vowel was not significantly different between the anti-harmony conditions and the harmony condition, suggesting that this effect should be replicated with other neutral vowels.

Analogy, simplification, and the history of French

1974 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78
Author(s):  
Douglas C. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Sound Change ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Conditioning Factors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Verner's Law ◽  
Phonological Change

In traditional studies of historical phonology, there is frequently a division between sound change and analogy. Sound change is said to proceed gradually and inexorably under strictly phonetic conditions; “La règle générale est que les transformations phonétiques s’opèrent avec une constance absolue c’est-à-dire que les mêmes phonèmes placés dans les mêmes conditions, se développent d’une manière identique.” (Schwan-Behrens 1963: 12). Occasionally, when the conditions are not apparent, there may be some concern until further research uncovers the conditioning factors. Such was the case with Verner’s law, for example. Yet in any interesting situation, there remains a body of forms for which the proper phonetic environment cannot be found. The items just do not follow the normal phonetic “laws.” In these cases, analogy is often called on to explain the discrepancy, and also to account for the reintroduction of regularity into a system “ravaged” by the forces of phonological change; “L’analogie joue un rôle considérable en roman (et en français) qui s’est reconstitué, comme on l’a dit, sur les ruines du latin où les ravages d’une évolution phonétique brutale avaient entièrement boulversé le système des oppositions morphologiques et de leurs valeurs” (Guiraud 1965: 63).

Preference Laws and Gradient Change: Selected Developments in Romance

1987 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Natural Class ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
Natural Classes ◽  
Gradient Change

This paper has two purposes. The first is to focus attention on the gradient nature of sound change. This characteristic of sound change, although an important one, is often overlooked. King (1969: 122), for example, states: “Phonological changes tend to affect natural classes of sounds (p, t, k, high vowels, voiced stops) because rules that affect natural classes are simpler than rules that apply only to single segments.” This perspective obscures the generalization pattern of phonological processes, for a particular process typically affects a subsection of a natural class and then may (or may not) generalize to other members of the particular class or even to other classes. The second purpose of this paper is to account for selected cases of gradient phonological change in Italian and other Romance languages on the basis of a partial theory of syllable structure preferences.

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