Weakening and Assimilation

Jean Mark Gawron Linguistics San Diego State University [email protected] http://www.rohan.sdsu.edu/∼gawron February 4, 2012

Contents

1 Basic types of Weakening 1

2 Consonant Weakening 2

3 Vowel Weakening 5

4 Assimilation 7 4.1 VowelAssimilation ...... 8 4.1.1 Nasalization...... 8 4.1.2 Umlaut ...... 9 4.2 Palatalization...... 10 4.3 Assimilationofplace ...... 11 4.4 AssimilationinMannerof articulation ...... 12 4.5 TotalAssimilation ...... 13

1 Basic types of Weakening

(a) In this section we look at a phenomenon called weakening. Phonological changes are called weakenings when they are steps on the natural path that leads to deletion. (b) Weakening is something that happens to both consonants and vowels but in different ways. So we’ll look at the two cases separately

1 2 Consonant Weakening

t

tt t D ∅

T

Figure 1: The scale of weakening

2 Degemination tt t

t D Frication

t T

t t Voicing

T D

Deletion D ∅

Figure 2: Weakening processes

3 Weakening Early Late Gloss Degeminaton (tt > t) mittere, L meter,S ‘put’ ¯¯ ¯ Voicing (t > d) m¯at¯urus, L maduro,OS ‘ripe’ ¯ ¯ Frication (d > D) maduro, OS maduro[D], S ‘ripe’ ¯ ¯ Deletion (d > ∅) maDyr, OF mˆur[myK],F ‘ripe’

Figure 3: Consonant weakening in Romance (L = Latin, OS = Old Spanish, OF = Old French, F = French, S = Spanish)

4 3 Vowel Weakening

The main process leading up to vowel deletion is vowel reduction, which generally means centralizing a vowel, which generally means turning it into @, see Figure 4. This usually happens to unstressed vowels.

i

u

e @

a

o

Figure 4: Vowel reduction

There are two sorts of vowel deletion.

(a) Apocope: Deletion of final vowel (b) Syncope: Deletion of word internal vowel

Simple vowel reduction and syncope are illustrated in (1) and (2).

The interaction of vowel reduction, syncope, and apocope is illustrated in Example 3.

5 (1) Apocope Latin French cura¯´ cure[kyK] ‘cure’ ¯orn¯are orner[oKne] ‘decorate’ ¯

(2) Syncope Latin French p¯´erdere perdre[pEKdK@] ‘lose’ ¯ v¯´ivere vivre[vivK@] ‘live’ ¯

(3) Syncope (following reduction) Old English Middle English Early Modern English (Cases) (vowel reduction) (vowel deletion) Nom.pl st¯anas [a] stones [@] stones [∅] ¯ ¯ ¯ Gen.sg st¯anes [e] stones [@] stone’s [∅] ¯ ¯ ¯ Apocope (following reduction) Old English Middle English Early Modern English (vowel reduction) (vowel deletion) nama [a] name [@] name [∅] ¯ ¯ ¯ talu [u] tale [@] tale [∅] ¯ ¯ ¯

6 4 Assimilation

We first discuss two kinds of vowel assimilation, nasalization and umlaut.

Then we discuss various kinds of consonant assimilation

7 4.1 Vowel Assimilation

4.1.1 Nasalization

In nasalization an oral vowel becomes nasalized due to the influence of a nearby nasal consonant.

(4) Nasalization Latin Portuguese French bon- bom[b˜o] bon[b˜O] ‘good’ un- um[˜u] un[ ˜œ] ‘one’

8 4.1.2 Umlaut

In umlaut, a back vowel becomes fronted, but retains its height and its roundness features, thus preserving a distinction in the phonological system.

(a) [u] → [y] (b) [o] → [ø]

Pre OE I Pre OE II EarlyOE Modern Sg. gos gos gos [gus] ‘goose’ ¯ ¯ ¯ Pl. gosi gøsi gøs [gis] ‘geese’ ¯ ¯ ¯ Sg. mus mus mus [maws] ‘mouse’ ¯ ¯ ¯ Pl. musi mysi mys [majs] ‘mice’ ¯ ¯ ¯ Figure 5: Umlaut [ø is a mid front rounded vowel, y is a high front rounded vowel]

9 4.2 Palatalization

ts dz t d  k   g  tS dZ

Figure 6: Examples of palatalization (affrication)

s S z Z

Figure 7: Examples of palatalization (frication)

Early Late Gloss centum, L cent[ts],S ‘onehundred’ ¯ ¯ centum, L cento[tS],I ‘onehundred’ ¯ ¯ medius, L mezzo[dz],I ‘half’ ¯ ¯¯ gentem, L gent[dZ], OF ‘people’ ¯ ¯ Figure 8: Palatalization (affrication) in Romance (L = Latin, I=Italian,O F = Old French, S = Spanish)

10 4.3 Assimilation of place

A consonant in one position assumes the place feature of a consonant in another. Early Late Gloss semda, OS senda,S ‘path’ ¯ ¯ inpossibilis, OL impossibilis, L ‘impossible’ ¯ ¯ Figure 9: Assimiliation in place in Spanish and Latin (L = Latin, OS = Old Spanish, OF = Old French, F = French, S = Spanish)

11 4.4 Assimilation in Manner of articulation

Early Late Gloss slæpde, EOE slæpte, LOE ‘slept’ ¯ ¯ stefn, EOE stemn,L ‘stem’(ofatree) ¯ ¯ Figure 10: Assimiliation in manner of articulation in Old English (EOE = Early Old English, LOE=LAter Old English)

12 4.5 Total Assimilation

Early Late Gloss octo [c=k], L otto,I ‘eight’ ¯¯ ¯¯ septem, L settem, I ‘seven’ ¯ ¯¯ dam¯ num, L danno, I ‘damage’ ¯ ¯ ¯¯ Figure 11: Total assimiliation in Italian (L = Latin, I=Italian)

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