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