Abstract
According to the so-called Prosodic Change Hypothesis, sound change may be irregular if it is caused by a change in prosodic features of units to which the relevant segments belong. This theoretically not implausible hypothesis may provide an explanation for the well-known fact that some instances of sound change display what appears to be unexplainable exceptions. The present paper investigates the question of what kind of data can be used to verify the Prosodic Change Hypothesis. The paper establishes criteria which should be applied to potential evidence and demonstrates that, at present, the Prosodic Change Hypothesis has not yet been confirmed by reference to actual instances of sound change.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Main Articles
- Using character N-grams to explorediachronic change in medieval English
- The diachrony of velar coronalization in Mojeño (Arawakan)
- Prosodic change and the (apparent) irregularities in the development of segments
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- Fine details of a larger picture: Proto-Sakishima *au and *ao diphthongs
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Main Articles
- Using character N-grams to explorediachronic change in medieval English
- The diachrony of velar coronalization in Mojeño (Arawakan)
- Prosodic change and the (apparent) irregularities in the development of segments
- From Athenian fleet to prophetic eschatology. Correlating formal features to themes of discourse in Ancient Greek
- Fine details of a larger picture: Proto-Sakishima *au and *ao diphthongs
- Standard negation in Awa Pit: From synchrony to diachrony
- Parentheticals revisited: The case of Dutch denken
- On the development of two progressive constructions in U̠t-Ma’in
- Reconstructing the ditransitive construction for Proto-Germanic: Gothic, Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic
- Review
- IE5.com. Historical Linguistics pro populo