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In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic change) or a more general change to the speech sounds that exist (phonological change), such as the merger of two sounds or the creation of a new sound.
On account of the above, the vowel inventory changes from /iː i eː e a aː o oː u uː/ to /i ɪ e ɛ a ɔ o ʊ u/, with pre-existing differences in vowel quality achieving phonemic status and with no distinction between original /a/ and /aː/. Additionally: Unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ merge into /e/ and /o/ respectively. [32]
Changes to the non-high back vowels /ɒ/ and /ɔː/: /ɒ/ is raised to [ɔ] and /ɔː/ is raised to [oː] in Southern England English, [30] [31] Australian English and New Zealand English. Cot–caught merger: lowering of /ɔ/ to /ɑ/ in Western American English and some dialects in New England and the Midland region. This sound change is still ...
Sound change may be an impetus for changes in the phonological structures of a language (and likewise, phonological change may sway the process of sound change). [1] One process of phonological change is rephonemicization, in which the distribution of phonemes changes by either addition of new phonemes or a reorganization of existing phonemes. [2]
Pages in category "Sound changes" The following 22 pages are in this category, out of 22 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. * Phonological rule;
The degree to which the Neogrammarian hypothesis is an accurate description of how sound change takes place, rather than a useful approximation, is controversial; but it has proven extremely valuable to historical linguistics as a heuristic, and enabled the development of methodologies of comparative reconstruction and internal reconstruction ...
The sound that /t/ and /d/ (in this example) change to, or the individual features that change. The slash is a shorthand notation for "in the environment where...". [5] It means that the notation to the right describes where the phonological rule is applied. The sound, or the features of the sound, that precedes the one to be changed.
Autonomy of the sound level: being the most observable aspect of language, the sound level is seen as the most important level of description, and absolute autonomy of the sound level from syntax and semantics is assumed. Historicism: the chief goal of linguistic investigation is the description of the historical change of a language.