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Sound Change(s): Part-II
We have already seen some basic sound changes in the last
class.
The part-II of sound change will explain what is known as
“General Kinds of Sound Changes”.
This kind of sound change starts with Assimilation and its subtypes and some other sound changes.
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Assimilation means that one sound has become more similar
to another.
It is about the change in a particular sound that has happened
due to the influence of a neighboring sound.
This kind of change is very common and happens to be the an
important category of sound changes.
Assimilations of sounds are classified in terms of the three
intersecting dichotomies a. total-partial, b. contact-distant
and c. regressive-progressive.
A sound change is termed as total assimilation if a sound
becomes totally like the neighboring sound/ influencing
sound by taking on all of its phonetic features.
While a partial assimilation is one, where the assimilating
sound acquires only some traits of the neighboring sound ,
and does not become fully identical to it.
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PS: Total VS Partial is also termed as Completer VS Partial.
A change of sound is called Contact assimilation if the sound
that becomes similar due to the influence of its neighbor is
immediately contiguous to the latter.
Thus, in many places, this is also known as Contiguous in
place of Contact assimilation.
A change of sound, however, is called Distant assimilation if
the sound that induces the change is not a neighboring
sound but might be placed at some distance in the word.
This type is also known as Non-contiguous assimilation.
An assimilation is called regressive or anticipatory change if
the sound that undergoes the change comes earlier or
precedes the sound which causes or conditions the
assimilation in the word.
This type is also known as ‘Leftward assimilation’ in many
places.
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However, an assimilation is called progressive if the sound
that undergoes change occurs after the influencing sound in
the word or in the conditioning environment.
This type has also been termed as ‘Rightward assimilation’ in
many places.
It is also known as ‘Lag assimilation’ …wait for an explanation,
it will come when we explain the category!
These three parameters of classification interact with one
another to give the following pair of sound changes in
Historical linguistics:
a. Total contact regressive assimilation
b. Total contact progressive assimilation
c. Partial contact regressive assimilation
d. Partial contact progressive assimilation
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Total contact regressive assimilation :
(1) Latin octo > Italian otto 'eight', noctem > notte 'night',
factum > fatto 'done'.
The k (spelled c) is before/to the left of the /t/ which
conditions this sound to change. Therefore, the change is
regressive.
The /k/ is immediately adjacent to the /t/, and this means
that it is a contact change.
Next, the /k/ acquires all the phonetic features of the
conditioning/influencing sound /t/ and becomes a /t/ in the
above examples.
Thus, it means that the assimilation is total.
(2)In septem > sette 'seven', aptum > atto 'apt, fit for', we see
the same kind of assimilation i.e. ‘total contact regressive
assimilation’.
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(3) Latin somnus > Italian sonno 'sleep, dream'.
(4) In Caribbean dialects of Spanish, pre-consonantal /s/
typically becomes /h/, which frequently assimilates totally
to the following consonant (in casual speech):
For example, hasta /asta/ > [ahta] > [atta] 'until'
mismo > [mihmo] > [mimmo] 'same'.
(4) In Swedish we find the following changes:
nk * > kk: *drinka > drikka 'to drink' (compare English drink),
*tanka > takka 'to thank' (compare English thank)
(where the spelling nk represents [nk*]) (Wessén 1969: 39).
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Total contact progressive assimilation
(1) PIE *kolnis > Latin collis 'hill'.
The /n/ is after/to the right of the /l/ which conditions the
change, therefore the change is progressive.
The /n/ is immediately adjacent to the /l/, thus it is an example of
a contact change.
The /n/ acquires all the features of /l/ which conditions the
change and thus it is a total assimilation.
(2) In Finnish, a /n/ assimilates totally to a set of sounds { l, r, or s }
in a preceding morpheme.
For example: kuul-nut > kuullut 'heard',
pur-nut > purrut 'bitten',
nous-nut > noussut 'risen‘
These examples in Finnish again exemplify ‘Total contact
progressive assimilation’.
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Partial contact regressive assimilation
(1) PIE *swep-no- > Latin somnus 'sleep'.
This change is partial because /p/ only takes on some of the
features of the conditioning /n/.
It becomes more like the /n/ by taking on its feature of
nasality, becoming /m/.
Because the /p/ is next to the /n/, this is a contact change.
It is regressive because the /p/ is before the /n/ which
conditions the change.
(2) In Spanish (in the non-careful pronunciations of most
dialects), s > z/ _ C+Voice
For example:
mismo > [mizmo] 'same',
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desde > [dezde] 'since'.
(3) In English by the changes in the morpheme /In-/ 'not‘
comes under this category. For example:
in-possible > impossible; in-tolerant > intolerant;
in-compatible > icompatible * (optional for many speakers).
Partial contact progressive assimilation
(1) The English suffix spelled -ed formerly had a vowel.
Some changes that took place eliminated the vowel of ‘-ed’.
Next, when the /d/ is placed adjacent to a preceding voiceless
consonant (but this has to be a non-alveolar stop), it
changes into a voiceless sound. (d > t / voiceless C__)
For example:
/wckt*/ 'walked', /træpt/ 'trapped'.
(2) The English suffix spelled as ‘-s’ also assimilated, becoming
voiced ‘-z’ after a preceding voiced (non-sibilant)
consonant, as in /dogz / 'dogs', /ribz/ 'ribs‘.
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Distant (non-adjacent) assimilation
Assimilation at a distance (non-adjacent or non-contact) is
not so common.
It is at least not as common as contact assimilation is.
However, some changes that are concerned with vowels or
consonants in the next syllable are quite common.
Therefore, we can’t ignore this category altogether.
Distant assimilations can also be partial or total, and
regressive or progressive. These are illustrated in the
following examples.
a. total distant regressive assimilation
1. PIE *penkwe ‘five’ >Italic *kwenkwe
2. PIE *penkwe > Latin kwinkwe (spelled quinque) 'five‘
3. PIE *pekw- > Italic *kwekw- 'to cook, ripen‘.
In all these examples, the change of /kw/ is right to left, thus it
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is regressive, distant and it takes on the total feature.
B. total distant progressive assimilation
(1) PIE *penkwe > pre-Germanic *penpe 'five’
The change of /kw / to /p/ is total.
The change is motivated from left to right i.e. progressive
The change is brought out by /p/ which is non-contiguous or
at distance.
(2) pre-Germanic *penpe > German fenfe
C. Partial distant regressive assimilation
1. This category is rare, and usually merely an accident in the
history of a specific word. Old French cercher "to search"
/sertʃer/ > Modern Fr. chercher /ʃɛrʃe/.
2. Umlaut in English, a back vowel becomes front if a high
front vocoid (*i, ī, y) is in the following syllable: ProtoGermanic *mūsiz "mice" > Old English mýs /myːs/ > mice.
3. Proto-Germanic *i and *u > e, o respectively before *a in
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the following syllable: PGmc *nistaz > OE nest.
D. partial distant progressive assimilation:
This category is rare, and usually sporadic: Greek leirion > Lat.
līlium "lily”.
In vowel harmony, a vowel's quality is often influenced by
that of a preceding vowel.
Before
assimilation
After
assimilation
VaCVbCVbC
VaCVa(x)CVa(y)C
Root
Dative
Gloss
város
város-nak 'city'
öröm
öröm-nek 'joy’ where ö =
The dative suffix has two different forms -nak/-nek. The -nak
form appears if the root has back vowels (a and o are both
back vowels), while the -nek form appears if the root has
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front vowels (ö and e are front vowels).
Dissimilation
Dissimilation is defined as the opposite of assimilation.
It is an example of sound change in which sounds become
less similar to one another.
It is also said that assimilation is far more common than
dissimilation.
Assimilation is usually regular and is found throughout the
language, though sometimes it can be sporadic.
Dissimilation is much more rarer and is usually sporadic than
being regular.
Though dissimilation, in some rare cases, can also be regular.
Dissimilation often happens at a distance and thus is mostly
called non-adjacent, though contact dissimilation is not
something that is unheard of.
The following examples illustrate these various sorts of
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dissimilatory changes.
(1) English dialects dissimilate the sequence of two nasals in
the word chimney > chim(b)ley.
(2) Instances of multiple occurrences of r within a word are
often sporadically dissimilated in Romance languages.
For example: a r….r sequence can be r…..l or l……r
Latin peregrinus* 'foreigner, alien' > Italian pellegrino
'foreigner, pilgrim, traveler’
Latin arbor* > Spanish árbol. This is distant progressive
dissimilation.
In a more regular dissimilation involving these sounds, the
Latin ending -al dissimilated to -ar when attached to a root
ending in /l / .
This is illustrated in the following Latin loans in English
alveolar, velar, uvular, which have dissimilated due to the
preceding /l/.
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These can be contrasted with words in which -al remains
unchanged because there is no preceding/l/.
For example, labial, dental, palatal.
Some examples from Spanish which illustrate similar suffix, with
a different meaning, in both its original and dissimilated
form.
For example: frijolar 'bean patch' (compare frijol 'bean'), tular
'stand of reeds' (see tule 'reed, cattail'), chilar 'chile patch'
(based on chile 'chili pepper').
However, if the phonetic environment is not met, the
dissimilation does not take place.
For example, pinal 'pine grove' (based on pino 'pine'), encinal
'oak grove' (compare encino 'oak').
(3) Grassmann's Law, a famous sound change in Indo-European
linguistics, is a case of regular dissimilation in Greek and
Sanskrit where in roots with two aspirated stops the first
dissimilates to an un-aspirated stop.
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These are voiced aspirated stops in Sanskrit and voiceless
aspirated stops in Greek.
Sanskrit bhabhuva * > babhuva* 'became’
Greek phéphuka* > péphuka 'converted‘
Greek examples which are cited very frequently showing
Grassmann's Law in action are:
trikh-ós 'hair'(genitive singular) / thrík-s (nominative
singular)
tréph-o* 'I rear (nourish, cause to grow)' / thrép-s-o* 'I
will rear'
trekh-o* 'I walk'/ threk-s-o 'I will walk’.
Greek trikhós 'hair' (genitive singular) comes from earlier
*thrikh-ós, to which Grassmann's Law has applied to
dissimilate the th because of the following aspirated kh
(*th . . . kh > t . . . kh).
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Similarly, trépho* 'I rear' is from *thréph-o*, where
*th . . . ph > t . . . ph.
In thríks 'hair (nominative singular)', from *thrikh-s, the
kh lost its aspiration before the /s/ (the nominative
singular ending) (*khs > ks), and thus Grassmann's Law
did not apply in this form as it should have changed the
first voiceless aspirated stop into un-aspirated one.
This left initial th still aspirated, since there was no longer
a sequence of two aspirates in the same root which
would cause the first to dissimilate and lose its
aspiration.
Similarly, in thrépso 'I will rear' (from *thréph-s-o) *phs >
ps, and with no second aspirated consonant (no longer
a ph but now only p), the th remained aspirated in this
word.
These changes are seen more clearly in Table-1 (nom =
nominative, gen = genitive, sg = singular).
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.
Most of the examples presented so far have been cases of
distant dissimilations.
Some additional examples of contact and distant dissimilation
are as follows.
(4) Finnish k > h/ t, d,
For example, /tek-dæ/ > tehdæ 'to do' (spelled tehdä);
/kakte-na/ > kahtena 'as two’
This is a regular change; all kt and kd clusters in native words
changed to ht and hd respectively.
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(6) In course of the development of Finnish language, a
change took place where the vowel /a/ before an /i/ of a
following morpheme in non-initial syllables regularly
changed to /o/ or /e/.
This depends on the nature of the vowel in the preceding
syllable.
If the preceding vowel was non-round, /a + i/ became /oi/,
and if it was round, /a+ i/ became /ei/.
Thus dissimilation take place by taking the opposite value of
rounding from that of the vowel of the preceding syllable,
as in:
sadoilla 'by hundreds' (< sata 'hundred' +i 'plural' +lla 'by')
sodeissa 'in the wars' (< sota 'war' +i 'plural' +ssa 'in')
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