John Benjamins Publishing Company
A unifying explanation of the Great Vowel Shift, Canadian Raising and Southern Monophthonging
Abstract
It is argued that three historical sound changes in English resulted from the enhancement of a duration cue involved in the signaling of phonological contrasts. In the case of the Great Vowel Shift (ca. 1600) the contrast involved was the opposition between long and short vowels, while in the case of Canadian Raising and Southern Monophthonging (ca. 1900) it is the laryngeal opposition in coda obstruents, whose most salient cue is a duration difference in sonorant rime portions preceding the coda obstruent. One of the two phonetic policies enhancing the duration distinctions is the raising of long vowels, which enhances their perceived longer duration by virtue of the illusion of a shorter time needed for the production of vowel targets, as occurred in the Great Vowel Shift. The second mechanism is the strengthening the second elements of closing diphthongs, which enhances their perceived shorter duration by virtue of an illusory conversion of the second elements into [w j], as happened in the case of Canadian Raising, and its counter-policy, the lengthening of the first element at the expense of the second, as happened in the case of Southern Monophthonging.
Abstract
It is argued that three historical sound changes in English resulted from the enhancement of a duration cue involved in the signaling of phonological contrasts. In the case of the Great Vowel Shift (ca. 1600) the contrast involved was the opposition between long and short vowels, while in the case of Canadian Raising and Southern Monophthonging (ca. 1900) it is the laryngeal opposition in coda obstruents, whose most salient cue is a duration difference in sonorant rime portions preceding the coda obstruent. One of the two phonetic policies enhancing the duration distinctions is the raising of long vowels, which enhances their perceived longer duration by virtue of the illusion of a shorter time needed for the production of vowel targets, as occurred in the Great Vowel Shift. The second mechanism is the strengthening the second elements of closing diphthongs, which enhances their perceived shorter duration by virtue of an illusory conversion of the second elements into [w j], as happened in the case of Canadian Raising, and its counter-policy, the lengthening of the first element at the expense of the second, as happened in the case of Southern Monophthonging.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Prelude, theme and riffs vii
- English /au/ 1
- The internal TR clusters of Acadian French 17
- Hocus bogus? 33
- A unifying explanation of the Great Vowel Shift, Canadian Raising and Southern Monophthonging 63
- Deconstructing tongue root harmony systems 73
- Underlying representations and Bantu segmental phonology 101
- Uniqueness in element signatures 117
- Charting the vowel space 133
- The relative salience of consonant nasality and true obstruent voicing 145
- Asymmetric variation 163
- The beginning of the word 189
- On the diachronic origin of Nivkh height restrictions 201
- Segmental loss and phonological representation 215
- The phonology of handshape distribution in Maxakalí sign 231
- English stress is binary and lexical 263
- Bogus clusters and lenition in Tuscan Italian 277
- The prosodic status of glides in Anaañ reduplication 297
- Index 321
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Prelude, theme and riffs vii
- English /au/ 1
- The internal TR clusters of Acadian French 17
- Hocus bogus? 33
- A unifying explanation of the Great Vowel Shift, Canadian Raising and Southern Monophthonging 63
- Deconstructing tongue root harmony systems 73
- Underlying representations and Bantu segmental phonology 101
- Uniqueness in element signatures 117
- Charting the vowel space 133
- The relative salience of consonant nasality and true obstruent voicing 145
- Asymmetric variation 163
- The beginning of the word 189
- On the diachronic origin of Nivkh height restrictions 201
- Segmental loss and phonological representation 215
- The phonology of handshape distribution in Maxakalí sign 231
- English stress is binary and lexical 263
- Bogus clusters and lenition in Tuscan Italian 277
- The prosodic status of glides in Anaañ reduplication 297
- Index 321
