Academic Paper |
|
|
|
|
| Title: | Fundamental Regularities in the Second Consonant Shift |
| Author: | Gregory K. Iverson |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Homepage: | http://www.uwm.edu/~iverson |
| Institution: | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee |
| Linguistic Field: | Phonology; Sociolinguistics |
| Subject Language: |
German
|
| Abstract: | Recent studies, by us and others, have argued that the Second Consonant Shift began medially after stressed short vowels, triggered by a segmental interpretation of aspiration in interaction with Germanic syllable weight requirements. The most striking empirical support came from the dialect of Wermelskirchen, where shift of fortis stops is attested only following short vowels. But is Wermelskirchen an isolated dialect or part of a general pattern? We review selected dialect data supporting this new account of the shift and show the Wermelskirchen evidence to be cut from a broader regional fabric that is marked also by biases in place of articulation among stops and, to some extent, their following vowels. We take these data to reflect the archaic nature of the modern distributions, concluding that the apparent idiosyncrasies obscure an original, fundamental regularity whose structural motivations come into clearer focus under the principles of Evolutionary Phonology. |
|
|
|
|
This article appears in Journal of Germanic Linguistics Vol. 18, Issue 1, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST . |
|
|
|
|
Back
Add a new paper Return to Academic Papers main page Return to Directory of Linguists main page |
|
|
About LINGUIST
|
Contact Us
|
Report Broken Link
While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents. |
|
