All Questions
Tagged with sound-change historical-linguistics
52 questions
10
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Grimm's Law and PIE in general
What's the evidence for stating that the transition from stops to fricatives took place in Proto-Germanic and not that fricatives became stops in the other PIE brances?
The question of this kind ...
- 451
2
votes
1
answer
162
views
Proto-Indo-Iranian: When did Satemization happen?
Is it known when Satemization happened in Proto-Indo-Iranian? I am assuming that this sound change was a one time event specific to this branch of Indo-European. But I know that some of the western ...
- 139
0
votes
0
answers
92
views
What were the sound changes in Old Novgorod?
I'm into conlanging and got the idea of recreating a Novgorod language. I tried Wikipedia in both Russian and English, but I still don't understand the various sound changes as there isn't a lot of ...
- 19
2
votes
0
answers
86
views
čьrnъ > czarny, čьrvenъ > czervony (Polish)
According to Wiktionary, Polish czarny is from PSl *čьrnъ, and czervony is from *čьrvenъ. At least prima facie the soft yers appears to have become different vowels in Polish.
I'm aware of the ...
- 183
1
vote
1
answer
97
views
Establishing criteria for sounds likely to facilitate phonological mergers around them
I know extremely little about the history of sound changes in languages other than English, so that will be the source of my examples. However, I’m asking this question for a more general, cross-...
- 724
0
votes
1
answer
144
views
On the effects of sound changes on case suffixes
I am working on a conlang and I came up with a question that I can't find a good answer too.
How does sound change effect suffixes, as whenever I work on conlangs with suffixes to mark different cases ...
- 197
2
votes
0
answers
120
views
How did Otto Jespersen figure out the Great Vowel Shift?
How did Otto Jespersen figure out the Great Vowel Shift?
Surely, there were no pronunciation audio recordings available.
How did he know how British people had pronounced vowels centuries ago?
Have ...
- 121
5
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Could some European languages get phonemic vowel length in future?
Could some European languages get phonemic vowel length in future? I don't like that so few languages in Europe have that. Which would cause phonemic long vowels?
- 301
1
vote
0
answers
126
views
How Italian "dito" was derived from Latin DĬGĬTU(M)?
I'm trying to figure out which phenomena may be involved in the development of Italian "dito" from Latin DĬGĬTU(M).
I think one of them may be a loss of intervocalic -G-, as explained in ...
- 176
5
votes
1
answer
311
views
Which is the origin of Romanian /h/?
According to Wikipedia,
Romanian has [...] the glottal fricative /h/.
You can hear it, for instance, in the Romanian word arhaic.
This cannot be of Latin origin because, as explained in the book La ...
- 176
1
vote
1
answer
122
views
Is "nea" <- "*nivis" proof that metaphonic diphthongisation occured in Romanian before the loss of intervocalic "v"?
The metaphonic diphthongisation phenomenon is said to have occurred between the 6th and 8th century. But it must have happened before the loss of intervocalic "v", though I have only one ...
- 189
5
votes
1
answer
554
views
Phonological Development from PIE to Greek
I found the following phonological development (from PIE to Greek) patterns very interesting.
*kw>t / __ {e, i}
(e.g., *penkwe- > πέντε)
*gw>d / __ e
(*gwelbhu- > δελψύς)
*gwh>th / ...
- 125
7
votes
2
answers
721
views
How did Gothic "𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌱𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌹" (andbahti) become Medieval Latin "ambasiator"?
I found the following etymology of the word "ambassador" on Wiktionary.
From Middle English ambassadore, from Anglo-Norman ambassadeur, ambassateur, from Old Italian ambassatore, ...
- 125
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How did Latin "aqua" became Sardinian "abba" and Romanian "apă"?
The way I believe it happened was by the change of "w" into "v" and the fall of the velar "k". Furthermore, betacism caused the change of "v" to "b" ...
- 189
8
votes
2
answers
447
views
Mechanism(s) as to how the pronunciations of「也」and its Old Chinese "homophones"/phonetically-derivative glyphs drifted to the modern range of sounds?
In my question on Chinese.SE, I learned that the modern character for "earth, ground"「地」(dì) used to be written in a multitude of ways, using either 「也」,「豕」, or「它」as phonetic components. ...
- 195
5
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How do we know that Avestan is sister of Vedic Sanskrit and not its daughter?
I am new here and to linguistics. Recently I have developed a passion and an interest for linguistics, but I am not familiar with it.
So I got into debate with a person from India. He was claiming ...
- 161
5
votes
1
answer
527
views
Evolution of [v] to [b] and vice versa
There are many examples that show that two phones [v] and [b] are related:
b
v
Meaning
Old English to New English
* habban
have
have
Middle Persian to New Persian
varan
baran
rain
Middle Persian ...
user22226
8
votes
1
answer
244
views
Why did Finnish and Sami noun-final A and I flip over?
I noticed a weird sound correspondence between Finnish and Northern Sami, and that is a list of words which pairwise end in -a or -ä in Finnish (this is the same archephoneme), and end in -i in ...
- 4,688
7
votes
2
answers
602
views
Apparent exceptions to the sound law f -> h in old Spanish
At some point during the evolution of Spanish, several initial [f] became silent (this is represented with an h in modern Spanish). This explains words such as hacer, harina, herir and many more. ...
- 713
2
votes
2
answers
668
views
I have read that in Mishnaic Hebrew, some pronounced the 6th letter as waw/w and some as vav/v What is the evidence of this?
I have read that in Mishnaic Hebrew, some pronounced the 6th letter as waw/w and some as vav/v What is the evidence of this?
I see it mentioned here https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/%D7%95-vav-...
- 299
2
votes
2
answers
539
views
Is Ruki sound law a Satem "Rhotacism"
Is Ruki sound law a Satem variant of "Rhotacism"
English PIE Russian
ear h₂ṓws ухо /úxo/
sear *sh₂ews- сухо /súxo/
deer *dʰéws дух /dux/
alder h₂élis- ольха /olʹxá/
their ??? тех /tex/
- 47
0
votes
0
answers
81
views
Quantification of rate of sound change in multiple languages
This question from over four years ago never got a definitive answer, perhaps because no 'rankings' of sound change rates existed at that time. I would like to revive it (in particular for sound ...
- 727
14
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Does the letter p in a word mean that the word is not Germanic?
In Germanic languages, the p sound in Proto-Indo-European became f. I have wondered if the p sound means that the word does not come from a Germanic source. This is because words that have p in them ...
- 151
6
votes
2
answers
844
views
Proto-Polynesian reconstruction and ambiguities in Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan and Tongan
given that:
Hawaiian (H)
Maori (M)
Samoan (S)
Tongan (T)
/l/ in H S T = /r/ in M
/t/ in M S T = /k/ in H
why do we find words with /l/ /r/ /n/ alternations instead of the common attested /l/ /r/ ...
3
votes
1
answer
97
views
Are bound forms in compounds more resistant to sound changes?
In English, words like cleanliness or breakfast have preserved an older vowel than those in the free forms clean and break. In Japanese, compound noun accent tends to match between dialects, even ...
- 5,000
7
votes
6
answers
496
views
Apart from French, does any language have voicing-dependent change of place of articulation?
The outcome of Romance velar palatalization in French depends on the voicing of the consonant: Lat. ankilla → OFr. [antsele] but Lat. argilla → OFr. [ardʒile]. This is also reflected in words borrowed ...
- 83.4k
4
votes
1
answer
140
views
*through* vs. *tough*: ME*-ough* /uːx/ > –? How are the sound shifts from ME -ough explained?
How is it explained that the sound sequence /uːx/ -ough has developed so differently in different words?
Not-dipthongized in through, shortened and unrounded and retained fricative in tough, lowered ...
3
votes
2
answers
475
views
Why does Sankr. नक्ति (nákti) not show Satemization
Did Sanskrit नक्ति (nákti) "night", PIE *nókʷts, not participate in the kentum-satem split? Why? Is it a loan? There are at least two synonyms, if that makes any difference.
I have no actual reason ...
- 1,391
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How did Latin get its stress pattern?
As far as I know, Latin had a word-initial accent for some time of its history after losing the Indo-European accent. I am wondering why Latin then switched to an ante-/pen-ultima stress pattern.
3
votes
1
answer
270
views
Homophones in Proto-Germanic
Does anyone know reconstructed homophones in Proto-Germanic or where I could look them up? I am interested in clear homophones, not polysemes.
4
votes
2
answers
110
views
How did Gk. ταινία "band, ribbon" come from PIE *tn̥-yā- < *ten- "to stretch"?
AHD-IER (Watkin, 2011) P93 gives PIE *tn̥-yā- for Gk. ταινία:
Suffixed zero-grade form *tn̥-yā‑. taenia; polytene, from Greek tainiā, band, ribbon.
while EDG (Robert Beekes, 2010) P1444:
...
- 1,727
2
votes
3
answers
380
views
Possible diachronic developments of th sounds
What are possible diachronic developments of th sounds?
Of course, I am aware of th-stopping /ð/,/θ/ -> /d/ and of th-fronting/θ/ -> /f/. Are there other developments of ð/ and /θ/ attested in the ...
- 31.1k
5
votes
1
answer
363
views
How did Proto-Indo-European *septm evolve into English "seven"?
The PIE *septm should have changed to Pre-PG *sefθen, by the Grimm's Law. Then, by the Verner's Law, it should have changed to *sebθen. Why did the *θ disappear for the word to develop into "sieben" ...
- 786
8
votes
2
answers
952
views
Why does "begin" have /g/ instead of /j/ if it's from PG *ginnan?
My understanding is that the reflexes of Proto-Germanic velar consonants before front vowels were usually palatal consonants in Old English, which in turn generally yield palatal or palato-alveolar ...
- 18.7k
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
s / h change in Indo-European languages
There are many words where Latin and Germanic begin with s– but the Greek begins with an aspirate (h–). How does this shift come about? They do not seem to be formed in the same part of the mouth at ...
- 61
4
votes
2
answers
705
views
Is Brugmann's Law controversial?
The Indo-European sound change known as Brugmann's Law states that PIE *o became ā in an open syllable in Indo-Iranian. The Wiki page calls the law "controversial" and says that "Brugmann's Law has ...
- 11k
8
votes
2
answers
682
views
Why does French "cheveu(x)" have "eu" and not "eau"?
Many French words have lost etymological /l/. I have read that this occured due to a process of l-vocalization around the 10th-12th centuries which turned pre-consonantal l to u after any vowel aside ...
- 18.7k
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
Sound correspondences in Germanic languages
I've noticed that in particular germanic languages have similar base words to english of which many times the only difference is that of the vowels. This would make sense seing as to how they are ...
- 607
6
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Are sound changes regular?
Are sound changes regular now or not? I mean it seems to me that it's accepted that sound change is pretty regular, because of how sound changes are treated in etymology/historical linguistics. I even ...
- 81
-1
votes
2
answers
164
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Historical Linguistics: Merging consonants [closed]
In Middle Egyptian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_language#Phonology), the /s/ and /z/ merged into one sound, but the graphemes continued to be used interchangeably.
As one who is interested ...
- 1
5
votes
1
answer
364
views
*sn > n (in Latin)
The older consonant cluster sn- loses its s in Latin:
nix "snow" vs. English snow
cēna "supper" vs. older Latin cesna
Two questions:
1) Since word-medial -sn- was clearly lost within the history ...
- 1,387
4
votes
1
answer
444
views
Languages showing affricate-to-plosive fortition (especially diachronically)
It is well known that consonant lenition or weakening tends to be far more common cross-linguistically than the opposite process called fortition or strengthening. Now, some languages have been ...
- 992
8
votes
1
answer
752
views
What is the approximate time of the loss of the intervocalic /s/ in Greek?
Teachers of Ancient Greek at my university have always been emphasising the importance of being aware of the loss of the intervocalic sigma in the language's history, because it helped to understand ...
- 1,426
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Examples of discrete place-of-articulation changes
Most sound changes that involve consonantal place of articulation are gradual changes between two POAs that are contiguous: for example, a velar gets gradually fronted until it becomes a palatal. What ...
- 11k
3
votes
1
answer
225
views
Use of forks/chopsticks and sound change?
Apparently
[European] humans had an ape-like bite until relatively recently, with our top and bottom incisors aligned along their edges. With the invention of the fork around 250 years ago, our ...
- 213
16
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is there a diagram showing the history of sound changes from Latin to the Romance languages?
We have had a number of questions about sound changes, asking for the history of specific changes. See this one, for example: asking about the change from Latin benedictionem to French beneiçon. Often,...
- 8,228
9
votes
2
answers
686
views
What is the sound law to describe the etymology of “helix” and “vulva”?
What confused me is the transition from "w" in PIE *wel- to "h" in E. helix .
And what's the sound law applied to the word E. "vulva",which has the change from "w" to "v"?
helix
"a spiral thing," ...
- 1,727
5
votes
1
answer
433
views
How do linguists determine at which point the Great Vowel Shift was complete?
The chart below shows a chain of sound changes that happened to the English language, from 1400 onwards. Although the chart was intended to describe the Great Vowel Shift, it is not accurate*, since ...
- 8,228
3
votes
1
answer
380
views
What processes of lenition in historical phonology exemplify affrication?
Are there any lenitive processes in historical phonology that show affrication? For example, that of the High German Consonant Shift where a stop becomes an affricate before becoming a fricative.
E....
- 2,049
5
votes
3
answers
896
views
Across West Germanic Languages, what sound changes have been most common since 1000 CE?
Across West Germanic Languages, what sound changes have been most common since 1000 CE?
For example, has there been much epenthesis (vowel insertion) or syncope (dropping middle vowels) or metathesis ...
- 8,780