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The Evolution of English Dental Fricatives: Variation and Change

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The Evolution of English Dental Fricatives: Variation and Change Mateusz Jekiel The evolution of English dental fricatives: variation and change Praca magisterska napisana w Instytucie Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza pod kierunkiem prof. dr hab. Piotra G ąsiorowskiego Pozna ń, 2012 Imi ę i nazwisko ............................................................................................................................ Kierunek i specjalno ść ................................................................................................................. Numer albumu ............................................................................................................................. Instytut Filologii Angielskiej Promotor ...................................................................................................................................... 1. Oryginalny tytuł pracy dyplomowej ..................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................... 2. Tłumaczenie tytułu pracy dyplomowej a) na j ęzyk polski (w przypadku prac napisanych w j ęzyku obcym) ..................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................... b) na j ęzyk angielski (w przypadku prac napisanych w j ęzyku innym ni ż j ęzyk angiel- ski) ..................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................... Podpis promotora ..................................................... Podpis studenta ..................................................... Miejsce i data ............................................ 2 OŚWIADCZENIE Ja, ni żej podpisany/a student/ka Wydziału Neofilologii Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu oświadczam, że przedkładan ą prac ę dyplomow ą pt. napisałem/am samodzielnie. Oznacza to, że przy pisaniu pracy, poza niezb ędnymi konsultacjami, nie korzystałem/am z pomocy innych osób, a w szczególno ści nie zlecałem/am opracowania rozprawy lub jej istotnych cz ęś ci innym osobom, ani nie odpisywałem/am tej rozprawy lub jej istotnych cz ęś ci od innych osób. Jednocze śnie przyjmuj ę do wiadomo ści, że gdyby powy ższe o świadczenie okazało si ę nie- prawdziwe, decyzja o wydaniu mi dyplomu zostanie cofni ęta. ść (miejscowo , data) (czytelny podpis) 3 Table of contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... 4 LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................ 9 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER 1: THEORIES OF AND APPROACHES TO SOUND CHANGE...... 12 1.1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 12 1.2. LANGUAGE CHANGE AND EVOLUTION ................................................................... 12 1.3. EARLY VIEWS OF SOUND CHANGE ......................................................................... 14 1.3.1. The Neogrammarians ................................................................................... 14 1.3.2. The Structuralists .......................................................................................... 15 1.3.3. The Generativists .......................................................................................... 16 1.3.4. The problem of actuation and transmission ................................................. 17 1.4. LEXICAL DIFFUSION .............................................................................................. 17 1.5. LINGUISTIC VARIATION AND SOCIOLINGUISTICS .................................................... 19 1.5.1. The recognition of variation and the rise of sociolinguistic study ............... 19 1.5.2. Variation and variables ................................................................................ 20 1.5.3. The history of sociolinguistics ...................................................................... 20 1.5.4. The uniformitarian principle ........................................................................ 21 1.6. SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 22 4 CHAPTER 2: UNIVERSAL PROPERTIES OF DENTAL FRICATIVES ............ 23 2.1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 23 2.2. DENTAL FRICATIVES AND PHONETIC TERMINOLOGY ............................................. 23 2.3. DENTAL FRICATIVES IN WORLD ’S LANGUAGES ..................................................... 24 2.4. ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF DENTAL FRICATIVES ....................................................... 26 2.4.1. Spectrogram analysis .................................................................................... 26 2.4.2. Voicing analysis ............................................................................................ 27 2.4.3. The incomplete phonologization of dental fricatives .................................... 30 2.5. PRODUCTION OF DENTAL FRICATIVES ................................................................... 33 2.5.1. Dental fricatives in British and American English ....................................... 34 2.5.2. Dental fricatives in modern varieties of English .......................................... 34 2.6. PERCEPTION OF DENTAL FRICATIVES ..................................................................... 35 2.7. ACQUISITION OF DENTAL FRICATIVES ................................................................... 38 2.7.1. Dental fricatives in L1 acquisition ................................................................ 38 2.7.2. Dental fricatives in L2 acquisition ................................................................ 39 2.8. SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER 3: DENTAL FRICATIVES IN ENGLISH AND OTHER GERMANIC LANGUAGES ............................................................................................................... 42 3.1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 42 3.2. THE ORIGINS OF DENTAL FRICATIVES .................................................................... 43 3.2.1. Grimm’s Law ................................................................................................ 43 3.2.2. Verner’s Law ................................................................................................. 43 3.3. DENTAL FRICATIVES IN ENGLISH .......................................................................... 45 3.3.1. Dental fricatives in Old English ................................................................... 45 3.3.1.1. Old English graphemes .......................................................................... 45 3.3.1.2. West Germanic developments ............................................................... 46 3.3.1.3. Old English phonological processes ...................................................... 47 3.3.2. Dental fricatives in Middle English .............................................................. 48 3.3.2.1. Middle English graphemes .................................................................... 48 3.3.2.2. Middle English phonological processes ................................................ 48 3.3.2.3. Middle English variation ....................................................................... 50 3.3.3. The phonologization of dental fricatives in English ..................................... 52 5 3.3.4. Dental fricatives in Early Modern English ................................................... 54 3.3.4.1. Early Modern English graphemes .......................................................... 54 3.3.4.2. Early Modern English phonological processes ...................................... 55 3.4. DENTAL FRICATIVES IN OTHER GERMANIC LANGUAGES ....................................... 56 3.4.1. Old High German ......................................................................................... 56 3.4.2. Dutch ............................................................................................................
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