The Development of the Aspiration Contrast in Germanic Ariënne Bruin 11 August 2015 Student number: 0938262 MA: Linguistics (research) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. C.J. Ewen Second reader: Prof.Dr. M. van Oostendorp 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................ 5 1.2 Theoretical background ............................................................................................... 6 1.2.1 Laryngeal systems ................................................................................................ 6 1.2.2 Framework: Evolutionary Phonology ...................................................................... 9 Limitations of formalist models and the comparative method............................................ 9 Evolutionary Phonology.................................................................................................... 10 1.3 Research questions..................................................................................................... 12 1.4 Overview.................................................................................................................... 13 2. Reconstructing the aspiration contrast .............................................................................. 14 2.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 14 2.2 Defining voice and aspiration .................................................................................... 14 2.2.1 Phonation types .................................................................................................. 14 2.2.2 Rule-based aspiration versus non-rule-based aspiration .................................... 20 2.2.3 Some notes on the aspiration of fricatives.......................................................... 25 2.3 Contrastive properties of aspiration languages and voice languages ........................ 26 2.4 Case study: aspiration in Old English........................................................................ 29 2.4.1 Method................................................................................................................ 29 2.4.2 Results ................................................................................................................ 31 2.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 35 3. Germanic enhancement versus the glottalic theory: typological and phonetic considerations ........................................................................................................................... 37 3.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 37 3.2 Germanic enhancement ............................................................................................. 40 3.2.1 The reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European obstruents ..................................... 40 3.2.2 Evidence for Germanic Enhancement ................................................................ 40 3.2.3 Arguments against phonetic enhancement ......................................................... 45 3.2.4 Summary............................................................................................................. 47 3.3 The glottalic theory .................................................................................................... 48 3.3.1 An alternative reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European plosives ........................ 48 3.3.2 The reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European obstruents ..................................... 49 2 3.3.3 Further evidence for the glottalic theory ............................................................ 50 3.3.5 Summary............................................................................................................. 59 3.4 Germanic enhancement versus misperception of glottalic plosives .......................... 59 3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 61 4. Germanic enhancement versus the glottalic theory: proposals for further research ......... 62 4.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 62 4.2 Phonetic triggers of sound change ............................................................................. 62 4.2.1 Causes of sound change...................................................................................... 62 4.2.2 Articulatory factors............................................................................................. 63 4.2.3 Perceptual factors ............................................................................................... 64 4.2.4 Forms of sound change....................................................................................... 65 4.3 Method: analysing the motivation behind the development of aspiration languages 65 4.3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 65 4.3.2 Experiment 1: Misperception of plain voiceless obstruents as plain voiced ...... 66 obstruents in English and French ...................................................................................... 66 4.3.3 Experiment 2: aspiration due to misperception of glottalisation versus............. 68 syllable-final phonetic enhancement of voicelessness through glottalisation................... 68 4.4 Possible scenarios and their implications .................................................................. 70 4.4.1 Experiment 1: Germanic enhancement ............................................................. 70 4.4.2 Experiment 2: misperception of glottalisation as aspiration .............................. 71 4.5 Summary .................................................................................................................... 72 5. Results and implications of a pilot study .......................................................................... 73 5.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 73 5.2 Experiment 1: misperception of plain voiceless obstruents as plain voiced obstruents 73 5.2.1 Method................................................................................................................ 73 5.2.2 Results ................................................................................................................ 75 5.3 Experiment 2: aspiration due to misperception of glottalisation versus syllable-final phonetic enhancement of voicelessness through glottalisation ............................................ 77 5.3.1 Method................................................................................................................ 77 5.3.2 Results ................................................................................................................ 78 5.4 Implications of the results.......................................................................................... 79 5.5 Evaluation of the methodology and suggestions for improvement ........................... 79 3 5.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 80 6. Conclusion and discussion ................................................................................................ 81 6.1 Main findings ............................................................................................................. 81 6.1.1 A definition of aspiration.................................................................................... 81 6.1.2 The development of aspiration languages as a historical change ....................... 81 6.1.3 Possible sound changes resulting in the aspiration contrast and their ................ 82 phonetic and typological probability................................................................................. 82 6.1.4 A methodology for analysing the development of the aspiration contrast ......... 83 6.1.5 The implications of the pilot study ..................................................................... 83 6.2 Discussion .................................................................................................................. 84 Appendix A: orthographic clusters excluded from the case study ........................................... 85 Appendix B: Old English obstruent clusters for the case study ............................................... 86 B1 Plosive–plosive .......................................................................................................... 86 B1.1 Voiceless–voiceless................................................................................................ 86 B1.2 Voiced–voiced........................................................................................................ 86 B2 Fricative–fricative .....................................................................................................