Evolutionary Phonology

Este trabajo analiza, desde distintos modelos y escuelas, los criterios propuestos para delimitar el concepto de fuerza consonántica y, en su perspectiva evolutiva, el de refuerzo consonántico. Se analizan condicionantes fonéticos y fonológicos; articulatorios, acústicos y perceptivos; segmentales y suprasegmentales. Se sugiere que los modelos basados en gestos articulatorios (como la Fonología Articulatoria o la Fonología Evolutiva) son, seguramente, los que mejor explican estos fenómenos fortitivos.
Teniendo en cuenta que son más fuertes los sonidos sordos (con gesto de apertura glotal), orales (con gesto de cierre velofaríngeo) y obstruyentes (con gesto de estrechamiento o, mejor aún, cierre oral), se propone que el criterio fonético que mejor recoge la contribución conjunta de todos estos gestos es la presión intraoral. Un mayor aporte de aire gracias a una glotis abierta y un menor escape gracias al cierre velofaríngeo y del canal oral son los responsables de un mayor aumento de la presión y, por tanto, esta puede constituir un índice de la fuerza consonántica.
A lo largo del trabajo se mencionan datos relativos a 147 lenguas, de filiaciones y procedencias geográficas muy diferentes. De ese corpus, 66 lenguas parecen mostrar claros ejemplos de refuerzo a nivel diacrónico.
Se concluye con una reflexión sobre las relaciones entre variación fonética sincrónica y cambio fonológico diacrónico, de tal modo que ciertos cambios que se inician como debilitamientos pueden, en perspectiva histórica, dar lugar a refuerzos consonánticos consolidados en la forma fonológica de las palabras.

Non-sibilant dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ are highly marked sounds: they are rare in the world’s languages, occurring in 43 (7.6%) out of 566 UPSID languages (Maddieson 2005: 83), they bear a low functional load (few minimal pairs, e.g. thigh~thy) (Smith 2008: 1), are difficult and problematic in first and second language acquisition (Cruttenden 2008: 196- 197) and relatively understudied within the field of acoustic phonetics. Moreover, /θ/ and /ð/ undergo sound changes across many modern varieties of English, being replaced by alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ or labio-dentals /f/ and /v/ respectively (Blevins 2006: 11). The aim of this thesis is to outline the history of English dental fricatives and find potential parallels between the present ongoing changes and the past developments that occurred in OE, ME and EMnE.

Although, traditionally, /θ/ and /ð/ in the PDE consonant system are considered as two separate phonemes, studies by Smith (2007, 2010a) show that the phonologization process of these sounds is still incomplete, meaning that they are not in contrastive, but rather in complementary distribution. Hence, the current phonological status of dental fricatives is similar to the one found in OE, when /θ/ was the only voiceless dental fricative phoneme while [ð] was a voiced allophone appearing between voiced sounds (Lass 1994: 71-72). However, while most linguists agree that the phonologization of English dental fricatives took place after the Norman Conquest due to the French influence (Lass 1992: 59), a different explanation is put forward by Laker (2009: 213), who suggests that /θ/ and th th /ð/ became phonemic as early as in the 5 -6 c. due to Old English-Late British language contact, further complicating the issue of the phonemicisation of these sounds.

A matter of equivalent importance concerns the graphemes, as dental fricatives in OE were represented generally by thorn <þ> and edh <ð> (used interchangeably for /θ/ and [ð]) but also, in the earliest OE manuscripts, by a digraph <th> (Hogg 1992: 33). Although, in the ME period, the former two symbols were being successfully replaced by <th> (Bourcier 1981: 128), Barber et al. (2009: 162) argue that <þ> and <ð> remained even until ca 1400. Moreover, studies by Kristensson (1987, 1995, 2001) and Diensberg (1995) show that there was a great deal of variation in ME writing, as the proper symbols for /θ, ð/ were frequently replaced by <t> and <d>, providing a possible link to the current phonological changes.

There are a number of modern varieties of English (e.g. Cockney English, West Midlands English, New York City English or AAVE), where /θ, ð/ are frequently realised as /f, v/ or /t, d/ sounds (Blevins 2006: 11). According to Blevins (2004: 134), the former change, th-fronting, is a perceptually based sound change, due to a strong perceptual simi- larity between dental and labio-dental fricatives. On the other hand, the latter change, th- stopping, can be also found in OE and ME, due to WGmc strengthening of fricatives (Lass 1994: 76) or pre-sonorant and post-fricative strengthening (Lass 1992: 64).

This thesis is divided into four chapters: (1) a presentation of selected theories of and approaches to sound change (2) the presence of dental fricatives among the world’s languages, their phonetic features, production, perception and acquisition issues, (3) a dia- chronic study of dental fricatives in OE, ME and EMnE, as well as in other Gmc languages and (4) an analysis of the loss of dental fricatives in selected modern varieties of English. The results of this study will hopefully shed light on finding possible parallels between past and present phonological developments, confirming that the current loss of dental fricatives in PDE is not a novelty sound change, but rather a reoccurrence of earlier innovations that took place in the previous stages of the English language.

Esta investigación analiza el cambio lingüístico desde un enfoque integrador y multifactorial. Dicha perspectiva comprende la interacción entre sincronía y diacronía, elementos estructurales y no estructurales, una visión unimodular de la fonética y la fonología que entiende el cambio fonológico como fonetológico, así como la aceptación de diversos factores que pueden intervenir en un mismo proceso de cambio. Posteriormente, se exponen diferentes descripciones, teorías y programas de investigación que intentan explicar el cambio fonetológico, profundizando en la Fonología Evolutiva. Asimismo, se revisan algunos ejemplos de cambio fonetológico en el español y se exponen diversas explicaciones para los mismos. Luego, se aplica el Modelo CCC de la Fonología Evolutiva para determinar su utilidad explicativa. Finalmente, se establecen las limitaciones de este programa de investigación para la comprensión cabal de los fenómenos estudiados, evidenciando la necesidad de avanzar en una visión integradora que reconozca la fuerte influencia del contexto social para explicar el cambio fonetológico.
Palabras clave: cambio fonetológico, lingüística integradora, multifactorial, fonología evolutiva.

This research analyzes linguistic change from an integrative and multifactorial perspective. This approach implies interactions between synchrony and diachrony, structural and non-structural elements, an unimodular view of phonology and phonetics, understanding phonological change as phonetological and also recognition of multiple factors that can cause a process of change. Subsequently, some descriptions, theories and research programs that aim at explaining phonetological change are presented, going into detail about Evolutionary Phonology. Likewise, some phonetological cases of change in Spanish are examined, and different explanations of them are shown. Then, the CCC-Model of Evolutionary Phonology is applied in order to establish its explanatory virtues. Finally ,the limitations of this research program for a comprehensive understanding of the selected cases are established, showing the need to move forward with an integrative view that recognizes the strong influence of social context in the explanation of phonetological change.
Keywords: phonetological change, integrative linguistics, multifactorial, Evolutionary Phonology.

The paper considers two typologically rare phonological phenomena related to the development of sound lengthening and reduction that appear in two dialects of the severely endangered Ingrian language in North-Western Russia. The first is attested in the Soikkola dialect, and involves a phonological ternary quantity contrast of consonants. The second exists in the Lower Luga dialect, and involves a phonological opposition of full modal and reduced voiceless vowels. First, brief phonetic, phonological and typological profiles of these contrasts are given. Furthermore, I analyze their probable further evolution against the typological background of the development of similar phenomena in genetically related and unrelated languages. In the end, I discuss the question of stability and maintenance forces of these contrasts, as well as their significance in light of general prosodic development of the Soikkola and Lower Luga dialects.

This paper focuses on the phonetic nature and path of evolution of Cantonese short-long stopped tones. Firstly, the phonetic nature of Cantonese stopped tones is explored in light of recent tonal acoustic studies. Secondly, drawing on examples from other Southeast Asian languages, an asymmetry of pitch differences is shown to exist in languages with both short and long stopped tones: the ‘short-high VS long-low’  pattern is much more common than the ‘short-low VS long-high’ one. An evolutionary perspective on this synchronic asymmetry is proposed, in light of (i) Ohala's (1981) listener-based perspective on sound change and hypercorrections, and (ii) facts pointing to an evolutionary path from ‘short VS long’ to ‘high VS low’. Finally, the dating of pitch splitting of Cantonese Yin Ru tone is discussed, as well as the issue to what extent the similarity of the stopped tone between Cantonese and Tai languages is due to substratum, recent influence, or parallel evolution.
[Keywords] long and short vowel, stopped tones, tonal evolution, hyper-correction

In traditional accounts of Hebrew morphology, the primary basis of word formation is an underlying consonantal root and vocalic/prosodic template. However, many words in Modern Hebrew containing reflexes of historical gutturals deviate from the canonical form with regard to syllable structure, the number of surface root consonants, and the number and quality of vowels in the template. These deviations can be characterized as deletion, vowel epenthesis, and vowel lowering, suggesting that the exceptional words can be explained via phonological approaches. Indeed, phonological explanations have been by proposed by previous generative and Optimality Theory (OT) accounts (Bar-Lev 1977, Bolozky 1978, Faust 2005), though these studies have been limited with regard to their explanatory scope. The present paper begins both by expanding on these treatments using a wider array of ordered rules and ranked constraints than was previously proposed and by exploring their limitations. To address their shortcomings, this paper then adopts an Evolutionary Phonology (EP) framework. Under an EP analysis, we can assess the extent to which the tools of phonology are appropriate for explaining patterns involving the modern reflexes of the gutturals by exploring multiple sources of explanation for these patterns: phonetic and historical factors, external factors such as language contact and prescriptive norms, and analogical change (Blevins 2004). The source of vowel lowering and epenthesis is posited to be the effects of the relatively high F1 associated with gutturals, which became phonological processes in Biblical Hebrew (McCarthy 1994). Incorporated into Hebrew orthography, these effects remained evident in Modern Hebrew, despite the fact that the guttural triggers themselves were not recovered in the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language in the late 1800s (Sáenz-Badillos 1993) and therefore did not form part of the synchronic phonology. After considering non-phonological sources of explanation for vowel lowering and epenthesis, deletion alone is left as a strictly phonological process. This paper proposes that the synchronic effects associated with vowel lowering and epenthesis should be explored using the tools of morphology rather than those of phonology.

Intervocalic consonant epenthesis is used as a case study for investigating grammar change. An emergentist framework is adopted, whereby a simple learning mechanism transforms a phonetically-based sound change into a synchronic phonological process. A two-part model of such 'grammaticalizing' change is developed, along with a formal analysis of the necessary model properties. This work demonstrates that perception-based consonant loss could, in principle, lead to synchronic epenthesis. However, the larger number of historic conditions required for its emergence are predicted to make it less likely than other outcomes such as deletion or supple-tion (unpredictable alternation). An important corollary of the latter result is that theoretically dispreferred grammars do not necessarily have to be explicitly marked or removed from the learning space. Input to the hypothetical learner is automatically filtered by asymmetries in the way sound changes occur, the way sounds are organized in words, and the way words are organized in paradigms. The conclusion is that mechanisms other than Universal Grammar are sufficient to produce the observed epenthesis typology without overgenerating. Furthermore, it is argued that the research methodology is a promising one in general for explaining the universal tendencies of human languages.

Esta ponencia tiene como objetivo exponer algunos de los diversos programas de investigación que buscan explicar el cambio fonetológico, caracterizados por considerarlo desde una visión que integra fonética y fonología, sincronía y diacronía y elementos estructurales y no estructurales. Para ello, realiza una indagación documental de tales enfoques investigativos. Respecto a estos últimos, se observa que, pese a ciertos aspectos generales en los que coinciden, tienen diferencias notables en las premisas que asumen para explicar el cambio de sonidos. Entre los diversos enfoques, destacan el de Ohala, que considera al oyente como motor del cambio; la Teoría H y H de Lindblom, que le da preponderancia al rol del hablante desde una perspectiva teleológica; el modelo basado en el uso de Bybee, que postula el rol reductivo-compresivo del hablante y la Fonología Evolutiva de Blevins, que utiliza la metáfora de la evolución biológica para dar cuenta del devenir del lenguaje. Se concluye que la lingüística contemporánea debe apuntar a la integración de enfoques investigativos con el fin de avanzar en la solución de problemas teóricos como el de la explicación del cambio fonetológico, para lo cual es preciso atender a consideraciones metateóricas y de filosofía de la ciencia.

Palabras clave: fonetología, cambio lingüístico, integración.