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Re: THEORY: sound change (was RE: Language revival)

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Sunday, November 28, 1999, 20:07
And Rosta wrote:
> Changes in phonetic realization of phonemes are regular. Changes in > phonemic incidence (=which phonemes occur in which words in which order) > are not inherently regular; they can progress word by word, driven > quite possibly by analogy, among other factors. > > So the regularity of sound change remains a fact, provided "sound > change" is taken in a restricted meaning of "phonetic change".
Do you mean that changes in allophony are regular, while changes in the phonemes of words may be irregular? If so, probably quite true, given a note that phonemic change is *usually* regular. That's my 2 bits at any rate. -- "Old linguists never die - they just come to voiceless stops." - anonymous http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor