Abstract
The origin and nature of ‘irregular', ‘sporadic' sound changes have been debated by different theories of phonological change since at least the Neogrammarians. They are often attributed to non-phonological factors, as analogy or borrowing, or to the non-(purely)-phonological mechanism of lexical diffusion. The aim of this paper is to show that an irregular sound change in the historical phonology of Tuscan - namely the voicing of some intervocalic voiceless stops - is not due to borrowing (as often argued), but to a variable and allophonic voicing rule, whose output was only partially subject to phonological recategorization. The most likely causes for this irregular outcome are the variable strength intervocalic voicing had in different environments, the interaction with another lenition process and the perceptual ambiguity of the lenited stops.
verified
References
1 Albano Leoni F, Maturi P (1991): Le occlusive sorde nell'italiano di Nusco; in Giannelli L, Maraschio N, Poggi Salani T, Vedovelli M (eds): Tra Rinascimento e strutture attuali. Saggi di linguistica italiana. Torino, Rosenberg & Sellier, pp 253-258.Search in Google Scholar
2 Allen WS (1978): Vox Latina. A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin, ed 2. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511620348Search in Google Scholar
3 Ascoli GI (1886-1888): Poscritta. Arch Glottol Ital 10:73-105.Search in Google Scholar
4 Baayen H (2008): Analyzing Linguistic Data: A Practical Introduction to Statistics Using R. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511801686Search in Google Scholar
5 Bach E, Harms R (1972): How do languages get crazy rules? in Stockwell RP, Macaulay RKS (eds): Linguistic Change and Generative Theory. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, pp 1-21.Search in Google Scholar
6 Blevins J (2004): Evolutionary Phonology: The Emergence of Sound Patterns. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486357Search in Google Scholar
7 Bybee J (2002): Word frequency and context of use in the lexical diffusion of phonetically conditioned sound change. Lang Var Change 14:261-290.10.1017/S0954394502143018Search in Google Scholar
8 Canalis S (2014): The voicing of intervocalic stops in Old Tuscan and probabilistic sound change. Folia Linguist Hist 35:55-100.10.1515/flih.2014.002Search in Google Scholar
9 Castellani A (1952): Nuovi testi fiorentini del Dugento. Firenze, Sansoni.Search in Google Scholar
10 Castellani A (2000): Grammatica storica della lingua italiana. Bologna, Il Mulino.Search in Google Scholar
11 Castleman W, Diehl RL (1996): Effects of fundamental frequency on medial and final [voice] judgments. J Phonet 24:383-398.10.1006/jpho.1996.0021Search in Google Scholar
12 Chappell W (2011): The intervocalic voicing of /s/ in Ecuadorian Spanish; in Michnowicz J, Dodsworth R (eds): Selected Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics. Somerville, Cascadilla Proceedings Project, pp 57-64.Search in Google Scholar
13 Cheng C-C, Wang WS-Y (1977): Tone change in Chao-Zhou Chinese: a study in lexical diffusion; in Wang WS-Y (ed): The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague, Mouton, pp 86-100.Search in Google Scholar
14 Cravens TD (1991): Phonology, phonetics and orthography in Late Latin and Romance: the evidence for early intervocalic sonorization; in Wright R (ed): Latin and the Romance Languages in the Early Middle Ages. London, Routledge, pp 52-68.Search in Google Scholar
15 Cravens TD (2002): Comparative Historical Dialectology: Italo-Romance Clues to Ibero-Romance Sound Change. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins.10.1075/cilt.231Search in Google Scholar
16 Cravens TD (2006): Microvariability in time and space: reconstructing the past from the present; in Cravens TD (ed): Variation and Reconstruction. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, pp 16-36.10.1075/cilt.268.02craSearch in Google Scholar
17 Cravens TD, Giannelli L (1995): Relative salience of gender and class in a situation of multiple competing norms. Lang Var Change 7:261-285.10.1017/S0954394500001010Search in Google Scholar
18 Durie M (1996): Early Germanic umlaut and variable rules; in Durie M, Ross M (e ds): The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp 112-134.Search in Google Scholar
19 Franceschi T (1965): Sulla pronuncia di e, o, s, z nelle parole di non diretta tradizione, con cenni sulla lenizione consonantica e la dittongazione in Toscana. Torino, Giappichelli.Search in Google Scholar
20 Franceschini F (1983): Sonorizzazione, lenizione, spirantizzazione nel pisano; in Agostiniani L, Giannelli L (eds): Fonologia etrusca, fonetica toscana. Firenze, Olschki, pp 131-149.Search in Google Scholar
21 Giannelli L (1983): Aspirate etrusche e gorgia toscana: valenza delle condizioni fonetiche dell'area toscana; in Agostiniani L, Giannelli L (eds): Fonologia etrusca, fonetica toscana. Firenze, Olschki, pp 61-102.Search in Google Scholar
22 Giannelli L (2000): Toscana, ed 2. Pisa, Pacini.Search in Google Scholar
23 Giannelli L, Cravens TD (1997): Consonantal weakening; in Maiden M, Parry M (eds): The Dialects of Italy. London, Routledge, pp 32-40.Search in Google Scholar
24 Giannelli L, Savoia LM (1978): L'indebolimento consonantico in Toscana. Parte I. Riv Ital Dialettol 2:23-58.Search in Google Scholar
25 Giannelli L, Savoia LM (1979-1980): L'indebolimento consonantico in Toscana. Parte II. Riv Ital Dialettol 3-4:38-101.Search in Google Scholar
26 Greenberg J (1969): Some methods of dynamic comparison in linguistics; in Puhvel J (ed): Substance and Structure of Language. Berkeley, University of California Press, pp 147-204.Search in Google Scholar
27 Guazzelli F (1996): Alle origini della sonorizzazione delle occlusive sorde intervocaliche. L'Italia Dialettale 59:7-88.Search in Google Scholar
28 Holt LL, Lotto AJ, Kluender KR (2001): Influence of fundamental frequency on stop-consonant voicing perception: a case of learned covariation or auditory enhancement? J Acoust Soc Am 109:764-77.10.1121/1.1339825Search in Google Scholar PubMed
29 Hualde JI, Nadeu M (2011): Lenition and phonemic overlap in Rome Italian. Phonetica 68:215-242.10.1159/000334303Search in Google Scholar PubMed
30 Hualde JI, Simonet M, Nadeu M (2011): Consonant lenition and phonological recategorization. Lab Phonol 2:301-329.10.1515/LABPHON.2011.011Search in Google Scholar
31 Izzo HJ (1980): On the voicing of Latin intervocalic /p, t, k/ in Italian; in Izzo HJ (ed): Italic and Romance: Linguistic Studies in Honor of Ernst Pulgram. Amsterdam, Benjamins, pp 131-155.10.1075/cilt.18.18izzSearch in Google Scholar
32 Izzo HJ (2005): Review of Cravens (2002). Linguist List 16.2749, September 24, 2005. http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?SubID=60431 (accessed January 3, 2014).Search in Google Scholar
33 Jaeger JJ (1978): Speech aerodynamics and phonological universals. Proc Annu Meet Berkeley Linguist Soc 4:311-329.10.3765/bls.v4i0.2221Search in Google Scholar
34 Johnson K (2011): Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics, ed 3. Oxford, Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
35 Kirchner R (2001): An Effort Based Approach to Consonant Lenition. New York, Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
36 Labov W (1994): Principles of Linguistic Change. Oxford, Blackwell, vol 1: Internal factors.Search in Google Scholar
37 Larson P (2010): Fonologia; in Salvi G, Renzi L (eds): Grammatica dell'italiano antico. Bologna, Il Mulino, pp 1515-1546.Search in Google Scholar
38 Larson P, Artale E (2005-): Corpus OVI dell'Italiano antico. http://gattoweb.ovi.cnr.it.Search in Google Scholar
39 Lavoie LM (2001): Consonant Strength: Phonological Patterns and Phonetic Manifestations. New York, Garland.10.4324/9780203826423Search in Google Scholar
40 Lindau M (1985): The story of /r/; in Fromkin V (ed): Phonetic Linguistics: Essays in Honour of Peter Ladefoged. Orlando, Academic Press, pp 157-168.Search in Google Scholar
41 Lüdtke H (1961): Sul trattamento delle sorde intervocaliche nel volgar toscano. Studi Linguist Ital 2:65-68.Search in Google Scholar
42 Maiden M (1995): A Linguistic History of Italian. Harlow, Longman.10.2307/479518Search in Google Scholar
43 Marotta G (2006): Il consonantismo romano. Processi fonologici e aspetti acustici; in Albano Leoni F, Giordano R (eds): Italiano parlato. Analisi di un dialogo. Napoli, Liguori, pp 1-24.Search in Google Scholar
44 Marotta G (2008): Lenition in Tuscan Italian (gorgia toscana); in Brandão de Carvalho J, Scheer T, Ségéral P (eds):10.1515/9783110211443.2.235Search in Google Scholar
45 Lenition and Fortition. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, pp 235-271.10.1017/CBO9780511809873Search in Google Scholar
46 Matras Y (2009): Language Contact. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511809873Search in Google Scholar
47 Meneses F, Albano E (2015): From devoicing to apocope: an acoustic study of poststressed high vowel. Phonetica 72:121-137.10.1159/000439599Search in Google Scholar
48 Merlo C (1941): Le consonanti sorde intervocaliche latine nel toscano. L'Italia Dialettale 17:229-231.Search in Google Scholar
49 Meyer-Lübke W (1890): Italienische Grammatik. Leipzig, Reisland.Search in Google Scholar
50 Meyer-Lübke W (1935): Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, ed 3. Heidelberg, Winter.Search in Google Scholar
51 Ohala JJ (1981): The listener as a source of sound change; in Masek, Hendrick, Miller, Papers from the Parasession on Language and Behavior. Chicago, Chicago Linguistic Society, pp 178-203.10.1007/978-1-4613-8202-7_9Search in Google Scholar
52 Ohala JJ (1983): The origin of sound patterns in vocal tract constraints; in MacNeilage PF (ed): The Production of Speech. New York, Springer, pp 189-216.Search in Google Scholar
53 Ohala JJ (1993): The phonetics of sound change; in Jones C (ed): Historical Linguistics: Problems and Perspectives. London, Longman, pp 237-278.10.1400/55295Search in Google Scholar
54 Pacini B (1998): Il processo di cambiamento dell'indebolimento consonantico a Cortona: studio sociolinguistico. Riv Ital Dialettol 22:15-57.Search in Google Scholar
55 Pieri S (1901): I riflessi italiani delle esplosive sorde tra vocali. Arch Glottol Ital 15:369 -389.Search in Google Scholar
56 Proctor M (2009): Gestural Characterization of a Phonological Class: The Liquids; PhD dissertation, Yale University.Search in Google Scholar
57 Recasens D (2002): Weakening and strengthening in Romance revisited. Ital J Linguist 14:327-373.Search in Google Scholar
58 Rohlfs G (1966): Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti: fonetica (updated translation of Historische Grammatik der italienischen Sprache und ihrer Mundarten: Lautlehre, A. Francke, Bern). Torino, Einaudi, 1966.Search in Google Scholar
59 Rohlfs G (1967): Review of ‘The intervocalic plosives in Tuscan (-p-t-c-)' by R.G. Urciolo (Bern, Francke Verlag, 1965). Indogerm Forsch 72:346-353.Search in Google Scholar
60 Scarpace D, Beery D, Hualde JI (2015): Allophony of /ʝ/ in Peninsular Spanish. Phonetica 72:76-97.10.1159/000381067Search in Google Scholar
61 Stevens KN (1972): The quantal nature of speech: evidence from articulatory-acoustic data; in David EE, Denes PB (eds): Human Communication: A Unified View. New York, McGraw-Hill, pp 51-66.Search in Google Scholar
62 Stevens KN (1989): On the quantal nature of speech. J Phonet 17:3-46.10.1016/j.wocn.2008.10.004Search in Google Scholar
63 Stevens KN, Keyser SJ (2010): Quantal theory, enhancement and overlap. J Phonet 38:10-19.10.1016/j.wocn.2008.10.004Search in Google Scholar
64 Tekavčić P (1980): Grammatica storica dell'italiano. Fonematica, ed 2. Bologna, Il Mulino.Search in Google Scholar
65 Troncon A, Canepari L (1989): Lingua italiana nel Lazio. Roma, Jouvence.Search in Google Scholar
66 von Wartburg W (1950): Die Ausgliederung der romanischen Sprachräume, ed 2. Bern, Francke.Search in Google Scholar
67 Walsh Dickey L (1997): The Phonology of Liquids; PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts-Amherst.10.1075/cilt.14.34wanSearch in Google Scholar
68 Wanner D, Cravens TD (1980): Early intervocalic voicing in Tuscan; in Traugott EC, Labrum K, Sheperd SC (eds):10.1016/S0095-4470(95)80165-0Search in Google Scholar
69 Papers from the 4th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam, Benjamins, pp 339-347.Search in Google Scholar
70 Whalen DH, Levitt AG (1995): The universality of intrinsic F0 of vowels. J Phonet 23:349-366.10.1016/S0095-4470(95)80165-0Search in Google Scholar
© 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel
Articles in the same Issue
- Front and Back Matter
- Front & Back Matter
- Further Section
- Title Page / Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Phonologically Constrained Variability in L1 and L2 Production and Perception
- Original Paper
- Allophony of /ʝ/ in Peninsular Spanish
- Variable Phonological Rules and ‘Quantal' Perception as a Source of Probabilistic Sound Change: The Case of Intervocalic Voicing in Old Tuscan
- From Reduction to Apocope: Final Poststressed Vowel Devoicing in Brazilian Portuguese
- Portuguese Lexical Clusters and CVC Sequences in Speech Perception and Production
- Can Nonnative Speakers Reduce English Vowels in a Native-Like Fashion? Evidence from L1-Spanish L2-English Bilinguals
- Production and Perception of the /i/-/I/ Vowel Contrast: The Case of L2-Dominant Early Learners of English
- Further Section
- Author Index
Articles in the same Issue
- Front and Back Matter
- Front & Back Matter
- Further Section
- Title Page / Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Phonologically Constrained Variability in L1 and L2 Production and Perception
- Original Paper
- Allophony of /ʝ/ in Peninsular Spanish
- Variable Phonological Rules and ‘Quantal' Perception as a Source of Probabilistic Sound Change: The Case of Intervocalic Voicing in Old Tuscan
- From Reduction to Apocope: Final Poststressed Vowel Devoicing in Brazilian Portuguese
- Portuguese Lexical Clusters and CVC Sequences in Speech Perception and Production
- Can Nonnative Speakers Reduce English Vowels in a Native-Like Fashion? Evidence from L1-Spanish L2-English Bilinguals
- Production and Perception of the /i/-/I/ Vowel Contrast: The Case of L2-Dominant Early Learners of English
- Further Section
- Author Index