Nieuwe pistes om de raadsels van het klankveranderingsproces op te lossen

• Published in: Nederlandse taalkunde (Groningen) Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 33 - 42
• Main Author: Pinget, Anne-France
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Dutch
• Published: Amsterdam Amsterdam University Press 01.06.2024
• Subjects: Language change; Language variation; Sound change
• ISSN: 1384-5845; 2352-1171
• DOI: 10.5117/NEDTAA2024.1.003.PING

Variation is an essential part of language, and language variation and language change are inextricably linked. But how exactly does sound change occur? Why doesn't change always happen? And vice versa: why do languages ​​sometimes change, while they might as well not change? This question is called the actuation problem. Actuation deals with the question of why languages ​​change, while at the same time actuation must explain both change and stability.This commentary shows how and why the approach in Cesko C. Voeten's article "Individuele verschillen in de fonologisering van taalverandering" (same journal issue) makes it possible to better understand how sound change is initiated and how it refines the understanding of actuation. Pinget explains where we stand with our understanding of language change and the concept of actuation and then discusses the avenues explicitly or implicitly proposed by Voeten to investigate sound change. In addition, Pinget proposes a few other avenues that we should explore further in the study of sound change to solve the actuation problem.