Re: sound change
| From: | Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, May 12, 2001, 10:53 |
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> Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 10:38:43 +0200
> From: BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
> At 18:50 2001-05-08 +0000, Raymond Brown wrote:
> >At 2:04 pm -0400 7/5/01, John Cowan wrote:
> > >In short:
> > > Sound change operates regularly to produce irregularities;
> > > Analogy operates irregularly to produce regularities.
> >Very nicely put!
> >Is it original Cowan? If so, can I quote it (with acknowledgment of
> >course)?
> It should be put into every historical linguistics textbook!
Of course. And our hero has it: Trask, _Historical Linguistics_, 1996,
middle of page 108. He refers to it as Sturtevant's Paradox, and dates
it back to the late XIX in the form:
Sound change is regular, but produces irregularity;
analogy is irregular, but produces regularity.
Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)