Regular sound change
The Neogrammarians of the Leipzig School introduced the principle that sound changes are regular and that this regularity is without exceptions. At least as a working hypothesis, this principle has remained the basis of the comparative method up to this day. In the first part of this paper, I give a...
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| Published in | Wacana (Depok, Bogor, Indonesia) Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 408 - 424 |
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| Main Author | |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
Netherlands
BRILL
01.01.2018
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| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The Neogrammarians of the Leipzig School introduced the principle that sound changes are regular and that this regularity is without exceptions. At least as a working hypothesis, this principle has remained the basis of the comparative method up to this day. In the first part of this paper, I give a short account of how historical linguists have defended this principle and have dealt with apparent counter evidence. In the second part, I explore if a sound change can be regular if it is attested in one instance only. I conclude that it is, provided that the concomitant phonetic (and phonotactic) evidence supporting it is also based on regularity. If the single instance of a sound change is the result of developments which are all regular in themselves, it is still in line with the regularity principle. |
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| ISSN: | 1411-2272 2407-6899 |
| DOI: | 10.17510/wacana.v19i2.706 |