Anthropology 1027A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Great Vowel Shift, Spelling Pronunciation, Vowel Reduction

• School: Western University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: Anthropology 1027A/B
• Professor: Tania Granadillo

Document Summary

Several causes: articulatory simplification (ease of articulation, aka we are lazy) A tension between being lazy and hard to understand. E. g. often - the disappearance of [t] caused by articulatory simplification and now rewind due to spelling pronunciation inconsistence: analogy and reanalysis. The change in morphology: language contact - borrowing, hypercorrection. Conditioned vs. unconditioned: applicable to all environments or not. Sequential change: particular sequences of sounds that change: assimilation - two sounds become more similar to each other. [p] becomes more like [m] - both bilabial. E. g. high vowel makes the preceding consonant palatal or affricate. E. g. a nasal influence a vowel to become nasal. Not continuous; long distance influence between vowels. Two sounds become less similar; maximize contrast. Insert a sound to break up cluster that is too hard to pronounce. Due to increase/decrease contrast: consonant strengthening. Consonant moving up in the ipa chart by changing the manner: weakening and deletion.