Ling 115, Week 6 Comparative method: History and challenges

Grimm's law: a tendency?

Neogrammarians and sound laws: Assumption: sound change is exceptionless (rather than sporadic) …and apparent exceptions, accountable in principled way

eg, A principled exception to Grimm's law in IE clusters

Skt. Grk. Lat. Gothic English (Data from Campbell 2004) páś- [skep-] spec- [OHG speh-] spy ‘to see’ ʂʈhiv- pū- spu- speiw-an spew [spīw-an] aʂʈā́u oktō octō ahtau eight [oktō] [axtau] nákt- nunkt- noct- nahts night [nokt-] [naxts] capt(īvus) (haft) [OE haft] ‘prisoner’ piscis fisks [OE fisc] ‘fish’ [piskis]

eg, Grassman's law: another principled exception (Data from Campbell 2004)

Skt Grk Goth Eng bōdha peutha biudan bid ‘to wake, become aware’ bandha bindan bind

*bheudha- *bhendh-

Greek Sanskrit doːso I will give a-daːt s/he gave di-doːmi I give da-daːmi I give theːsoː I will put a-dhaːt s/he put ti-theːmiː I put da-dhaːmi I put eg, Verner's law: another princpled exception to Grimm's law (Data from Campbell 2004) Skt Grk Lat Goth Eng saptá heptá septem sibun seven [siβun] pitár- patḗr pater fadar [OE fædar] [faðar] śátám (he-)katón centum hunda hundred [ʃətəm] [kentum] śrutás klutós hlud ‘loud’ makrós macer [OHG magar] meagre [maker]

Morphological (non-phonetic) conditioning

Northern Paamese *l → {Ø, l, i}

l → Ø word-initially & adjacent to [e]

leiai → eiai ‘bush’ alete → aet ‘flat area’ gela → kea ‘she crawled’ melau → meau ‘megapode’

*l → l adjacent to high vowels

asilati → asilat ‘worm’ haulue → houlu ‘many’ gilela → kilea ‘she knew’ teilaŋi → teilaŋ ‘sky’ ahilu → ahil ‘hair’ tahule → tahul ‘wave’

*l → i elsewhere laːla → aːia ‘kind of bird’ malou → maiou ‘kava’ metaːlo → metaːio ‘European’ toːlau → toːiau ‘northeast wind’ amalo → amai ‘reef’ avola → avoi ‘mushroom’

But initial *l in verbs: leheie → lehei ‘(s)he pulled it’ loho → loh ‘(s)he ran’ laːpo → laːpo ‘(s)he fell’

Other hurdles

Analogical changes four/five, quattuor/quinque ← kwattwor, penkwe

Irregular reanalysis nadder, nauger, napron hypercorrection e.g., Bahasa Malaysia vs Celaka Perak ratus ɣatuih ‘hundred’ ribu ɣibu ‘thousand’ buruk buɣuk ‘rotten’ loɣat loɣat ‘accent’ ← sometimes hyper-corrected to [lorat]

Borrowing (lexical copying)

ship, shirt vs skiff, skirt

Sinaugoro vs Motu ɣita ita ‘see’ ɣutu utu ‘lice’ ɣate ase ‘liver’ ɣulita urita ‘octopus’ tuliɣa turia ‘bone’ ɣatoi ɣatoi ‘egg’ leɣi rei ‘long grass’

Areal effects and wave theory

Structural similarities shared among languages of a geographical area

Wave Theory: shared properties are attributed to innovations spreading among spatially proximate languages rather than common heritage

Diffusion of uvular [ʁ] in Western Europe

Final vowels in Micronesian languages

Woleaian: final vowel devoicing mejḁ ‘feel (intr.)’ meja-fi ‘feel (trans.)’ fire̥ ‘weave (intr.)’ fire-xi ‘weave (trans.)’ fato̥ ‘plant (intr.)’ fato-xi ‘plant (trans.)’ perase̥ ‘splash’ perase-rase̥ ‘scatter’ misi̥ ‘fool’ misi-misi̥ ‘tell lies’

Chuukese: final vowel deletion Unsuffixed gloss suffixed gloss omos ‘turban shell’ omosu-j ‘my turban shell’ məkɨr ‘head’ məkɨre-j ‘my head’ pisek ‘goods’ piseki-j ‘my goods’ sæfej ‘medicine’ sæfeje-j ‘my medicine’ səkɨr ‘back’ səkɨri-j ‘my back’ pək ‘chip’ pəkə-n ‘of chips’

Ponapean: final vowel deletion Unsuffixed gloss suffixed gloss kiil ‘skin’ kilin ‘skin of’ rooŋ ‘news’ roŋen ‘news of’ usu ‘star’ usuun ‘star of’ wwa ‘fruit’ wwaan ‘fruit of’ pii ‘sand’ pika-pik ‘sandy’

Mokilese: final vowel deletion Unsuffixed gloss suffixed gloss at name ɔtɔn name of pik sand piken sand of

Marshallese: final vowel deletion Unsuffixed gloss suffixed gloss wah canoe wahan his canoe rijab tell falsehood rijabej tell lies kadek get drunk kadekej get drunk from ʤibwin use a spoon ʤibwinij use a spoon ʤerak set sail (intr) ʤerakej set sail for

Gilbertese: only high vowels affected Unsuffixed gloss suffixed gloss buti to travel buti-mweere slow uti to awaken uti-mweere slow to awaken kiba to fly kiba-mweere slow at flying uii mouth uii-tata fast at talking bai hand bai-tata fast at working with hands oota to shine oota-mwaaka bright aŋ air, wind aŋi-buaka a strong or bad wind man animal mani-man infested with bugs ran water rani-ran watery

(1) Nuclear Micronesian

Central Micronesian

Western Micronesian

Chuukic-Pohnpeic

Chuukic Pohnpeic Marshallese Gilbertese Kosraean Chuukese Pohnpeian (Kiribati) (Kusaiean) Puluwat Mokilese Woleaian Pingilapese Ulithian

Dialect chains

In a series of neighboring varieties, each adjacent pair of varieties shares some features, but subgrouping is not possible.

More Paamese: northern and southern varieties

NP SP gloss 3 r,k d,g 1 ei,ou ai,au raho daho s/he is fat eim aim house rei dai s/he chopped it keil kail they kea gela s/he crawled oul aul maggot keih gaih s/he is strong moul maul alive 4 no a before a 2 l i,Ø atau letau woman amai amal reef namatil nematil I slept a:i a:l stinging tree tahe tahel wave 5 no labio-velars mea mela get up mwail mail left-hand side mweatin meatin man vwe:k ve:k my sleeping place vwakora vakora coconut shell

1 2 3 4 5

N N N N N

S N S N S

S S S S S

Rheinland German/Dutch

I village that ik dorp dat ix dorp dat ix dorf dat ix dorf das

North American English dialect chain

South Philly NY Boston Canada West

Fronted /oʊ/ Tensed /æ/ Non-rhotic (no Back /oʊ/ as Lowering of as in home in bath but r in syllable in home bid, bed, bad not back coda)