Re: Notation Question

Robin Whelton wrote:
> I'm reading about sound changes in languages, and I keep seeing
> what I can tell is a formal notation system. It's obviously set up
> as  A > B / C  where A is the original sound, B is the sound it
> changes into, and C is the environment in which the change occurs.
> So far, so good.
>
> My problem is that I can't seem to find a list of how to read all
> the symbols used in the notation. Does the darned thing have
> a proper name that I could feed to Google? Is there a site out
> there somewhere with a guide for reading this stuff, that some
> kind soul could pass on to me?
>
I'm not sure about whatever notation may be used in computer programs, if
that's what you're after; but in terms of rule-writing, abbreviatory
conventions, features, etc. you might try to search "generative phonology",
or locate one of the old textbooks (e.g. Robert Harms, "Intro. to
Phonological Theory", Prentice-Hall 1968; ppbk. ed. 1970).  Modern
"optimality theory" uses some of the same rule forms and conventions too. (I
don't think Gen.Phon. is still in vogue, though lots of the conventions are
still in use.) Even a skim through Chomsky and Halle's "Sound Pattern of
English" might provide a crash-course (though their application of the
theory to Engl. phonology is almost a reductio ad absurdum  IMO!!!)

In fact, I suspect Gen.PHon. came about in the 60s-70s once scholars,
inspired by Chomsky's view of lang. as "rule-governed behavior", got
acquainted with their universities' computers-- certainly the need for
careful attention to rule order, careful rule-writing, the idea that there
was an input ("underlying form") and an output ("surface form"), etc. seem
to derive I think from computerese.

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