AMC Biennial lecture

Speaker: Professor Aditi Lahiri

Topic: Pertinacity of Phonological Nonsuches

Abstract: Surface changes due to loans may suggest that the native phonology has been ignored. Nevertheless, a closer look at individual cases shows that native segmental, metrical and tonal phonological constraints operate effectively and persistently on loan incorporation. The hypothesis entertained is the following: phonological opacity may lead to varying choices for native speakers, and the resulting choice is governed by existing phonological preferences. The evidence comes from detailed case studies Germanic and Indo-Aryan languages. These will include metrical (re-)organisation in medieval Germanic (English, German, Norwegian, Dutch) and Old Bengali, quantity contrasts in Old High German,  shift in tonal and laryngeal specification in Scandinavian languages, and increase in marked segmental contrasts in Early Modern Bengali and Early Modern English. In all of the above, the loans may affect the lexicon, particularly the nonesuches  (segmental, quantity and tonal) which could change the statistical preferences (e.g. increase of Accent 1 words in Norwegian, increase of  coronal consonants in Indo-Aryan, etc.), but at each stage the phonological grammar plays a constraining influence.

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Angus McIntosh Centre event details

Angus McIntosh Centre

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Rhona Alcorn