Volume 23, Issue 2 -

Given the common intuition that consonant lenition occurs more often than fortition, we formulate this as a hypothesis, defining these sound change types in terms of decrease or increase in oral constriction. We then test the hypothesis on allophonic processes in a diverse sample of 81 languages. With the hypothesis confirmed, we examine the input and output of such sound changes in terms of manner and place of articulation and find that while decrease in oral constriction (weakening) affects most consonant types, increase in oral constriction (strengthening) is largely restricted to palatal and labial glides. We conclude that strengthening does not appear to be the simple inverse of weakening. In conclusion we suggest some possible avenues for explaining how glide strengthening may result from articulatory production pressures and speculate that strengthening and weakening can be encompassed under a single theory of sound change resulting from the automatization of production.

The lexical and phrasal dimensions of aspect and their interactions with morphosyntactic aspectual operators have proved difficult to model in Bantu languages. Bantu actional types do not map neatly onto commonly accepted categorizations of actionality, although these are frequently assumed to be universal and based on real-world event typologies. In this paper, we describe important characteristics and major actional distinctions attested across Bantu languages. These, we argue, include complex lexicalizations consisting of a coming-to-be phase, the ensuing state change, and the resultant state; sub-distinctions of coming-to-be phases, and other issues of phasal quality. Despite these fine-grained distinctions in phasal structure and quality, evidence for a principled distinction between activity- and accomplishment-like predicates is mixed. We review the current state of evidence for these characteristics of Bantu actionality and sketch methodological directions for future research.

The aim of this paper is to present the Euskara Bariazioan/Basque in Variation ( BiV ) database, a project launched by the Basque and Beyond (Bas&Be) research group. This open-access online database, available in both Basque and English versions, is intended to facilitate research on Basque morphosyntactic features that show cross-dialectal variation. Based on data obtained from questionnaires, the BiV provides the user with a description of each feature together with illustrative examples, and accompanies each entry with a map graphically depicting the distribution of variation. The resulting fine-grained picture of the distribution of morphosyntactic phenomena across Basque varieties has the ultimate goal of improving our understanding of the systematicities and connections that underlie variation. Thanks to its user-friendly format, the database can be used easily by anyone who is interested in Basque morphosyntax in particular and cross-linguistic variation in general. The results obtained thus far show that while some features have the same distribution across Basque varieties as that previously reported, others are spreading and thus have a wider geographical presence than has been described in the literature.