New Perspectives on English Sound Patterns: “Natural” and “Unnatural” in Evolutionary Phonology

Principles of Evolutionary Phonology are applied to a selection of sound changes and stable sound patterns in varieties of English. These are divided into two types: natural phonetically motivated internal changes and all others, which are classified as unnatural. While natural phonetically motivate...

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Veröffentlicht in:Journal of English linguistics 2006-03, Vol.34 (1), p.6-25
1. Verfasser: Blevins, Juliette
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Principles of Evolutionary Phonology are applied to a selection of sound changes and stable sound patterns in varieties of English. These are divided into two types: natural phonetically motivated internal changes and all others, which are classified as unnatural. While natural phonetically motivated sound change may be inhibited by external forces, certain phonotactic patterns show notable stability in English and are only eliminated under particular types of contact with languages lacking the same patterns. Within the evolutionary model, this stability is expected since natural sound changes involving wholesale elimination of these patterns are not known.
ISSN:0075-4242
1552-5457
DOI:10.1177/0075424206287585