Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:46:57.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fundamental Regularities in the Second Consonant Shift

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2006

Gregory K. Iverson  and
Joseph C. Salmons
Gregory K. Iverson
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Joseph C. Salmons
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent studies, by us and others, have argued that the Second Consonant Shift began medially after stressed short vowels, triggered by a segmental interpretation of aspiration in interaction with Germanic syllable weight requirements. The most striking empirical support came from the dialect of Wermelskirchen, where shift of fortis stops is attested only following short vowels. But is Wermelskirchen an isolated dialect or part of a general pattern? We review selected dialect data supporting this new account of the shift and show the Wermelskirchen evidence to be cut from a broader regional fabric that is marked also by biases in place of articulation among stops and, to some extent, their following vowels. We take these data to reflect the archaic nature of the modern distributions, concluding that the apparent idiosyncrasies obscure an original, fundamental regularity whose structural motivations come into clearer focus under the principles of Evolutionary Phonology.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 11th Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference (GLAC-11), University of California–Davis, in April 2005. In addition to members of that audience and two readers for this journal, we have had the privilege of valuable discussions on this topic and comments on earlier drafts from the following colleagues, none of whom necessarily agrees with all of our points: Juliette Blevins, Markus Denkler, David Fertig, Patrick Honeybone, Robert B. Howell, Thomas Klein, Mark Louden, Jürgen Macha, Monica Macaulay, Klaus J. Mattheier, Donka Minkova, Richard Page, and Laura Smith. We also thank Garry Davis for sharing a copy of the handout from his 2003 presentation with us.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 45 - 70
Copyright
© 2006 Society for Germanic Linguistics

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Avery Peter, and Keren Rice. 1989. Segment structure and coronal underspecification. Phonology 6. 179– 200.Google Scholar
Bàrtoli Matteo. 1925. Introduzione alla Neolinguistica. Genève: Olschki.
Bergmann Rolf. 1966. Mittelfränkische Glossen: Studien zur ihrer Ermittlung und sprachgeographischen Einordnung. (Rheinisches Archiv, 61.) Bonn: Ludwig Röhrscheid.
Blevins Juliette. 2004. Evolutionary phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bonfante Giuliano. 1947. The Neolinguistic position. Language 23. 344– 375.Google Scholar
Braune Wilhelm. 1874. Zur Kenntnis des Fränkischen und zur hochdeutschen Lautverschiebung. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur (PBB) 1. 1– 56.Google Scholar
Braune/Eggers = Braune Wilhelm. 1987. Althochdeutsche Grammatik. 14th ed. by Hans Eggers. (Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte, A.5.) Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Buchmüller-Pfaff Monika. 1990. Siedlungsnamen zwischen Spätantike und frühem Mittelalter. Die -(i)acum-Namen der römischen Provinz Belgica Prima. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Buccini Anthony F. 1992. The development of umlaut and the dialectal position of Dutch in Germanic. Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University.
Chambers Jack K., and Peter Trudgill. 1981. Dialectology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davis Garry W. 2003. The spread of the OHG consonant shift. Paper presented at the Ninth Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference (GLAC-9), Buffalo, New York.
Davis Garry W., and Gregory K. Iverson. 1995. The High German consonant shift as feature spreading. American Journal of Germanic Languages and Literatures 7. 111– 127.Google Scholar
Davis Garry W., Gregory K. Iverson, and Joseph C. Salmons. 1999. Peripherality and markedness in the spread of the High German consonant shift. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur (PBB) 121. 177– 200.Google Scholar
Engels Peter. 1904. Zur Grenze der Lautverschiebung zwischen Mittel- und Niederfranken. Doctoral dissertation, Universität Münster. Münster: R. Noske.
Franz Wilhelm. 1883. Die lateinisch-romanischen Elemente im Althochdeutschen. Doctoral dissertation, Strasbourg: Trübner.
Greferath Theodor. 1922. Studien zu den Mundarten zwischen Köln, Jülich, M.-Gladbach und Neuá. (Deutsche Dialektgeographie, 11b.) Marburg: Elwert.
Hasenclever Max. 1905. Der Dialekt der Gemeinde Wermelskirchen. Marburg: Elwert.
Haubrichs Wolfgang. 1987. Lautverschiebung in Lothringen. Zur althochdeutschen Integration vorgermanischer Toponyme der historischen Sprachlandschaft zwischen Mosel und Saar. Althochdeutsch, vol. 2: Wörter und Namen, ed. by Rolf Bergmann et al., 1350– 1400. Heidelberg: Winter.
Honeybone Patrick. 2005. Sharing makes us stronger: Process inhibition and segmental structure. Headhood, elements, specification, and contrastivity, ed. by Philip Carr, Jacques Durand, and Colin J. Ewen, 167– 192. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Honeybone Patrick. Forthcoming. Germanic obstruent lenition: Some mutual implications of theoretical and historical phonology.
Iverson Gregory K., and Ahrong Lee. 2004. Perceived syllable structure in the adaptation of loanwords in Korean. Proceedings of the 2004 Linguistic Society of Korea International Conference (vol. 1, Forum Lectures and Workshops), 117– 136. Seoul: Hansin Publishing Co.
Iverson Gregory K., and Joseph C. Salmons. 1995. Aspiration and laryngeal representation in Germanic. Phonology 12. 369– 396.Google Scholar
Iverson Gregory K., and Joseph C. Salmons. 1996. The primacy of primary umlaut. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur (PBB) 118. 69– 86.Google Scholar
Iverson Gregory K., and Joseph C. Salmons. 2003a. The ingenerate motivation of sound change. Motives for language change, ed. by Raymond Hickey, 199– 212. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Iverson Gregory K., and Joseph Salmons. 2003b. Laryngeal enhancement in early Germanic. Phonology 20. 43– 72.Google Scholar
Iverson Gregory K., and Joseph C. Salmons. Forthcoming (in a Festschrift). Copying, blurring, and the morphological roles of Germanic umlaut. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kim Hyunsoon. 2001a. The place of articulation of the Korean plain affricate in intervocalic position: An articulatory and acoustic study. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 31. 229– 257.Google Scholar
Kim Hyunsoon. 2001b. A phonetically based account of phonological stop assibilation. Phonology 18. 81– 108.Google Scholar
Klein Thomas. 2000. Rheinische und westfälische Sprachgeschichte bis 1300. Rheinisch-Westfälische Sprachgeschichte, ed. by Jürgen Macha, Elmar Neuss, and Robert Peters, with assistance from Stephan Elspass, 3– 48. Köln: Böhlau.
Lange Klaus-Peter. 1998. Die fränkischen Lautverschiebungen im niederländisch-ripuarischen Gebiet. NOWELE 34. 43– 74.Google Scholar
Lange Klaus-Peter. 2001. Die westfränkische Lautverschiebung nach dem Zeugnis der französischen Etymologie. Folia Linguistica Historica 22. 281– 309.Google Scholar
Leihener Erich. 1908. Cronenberger Wörterbuch (mit ortsgeschichtlicher, grammatischer und dialektgeographischer Einleitung). (Deutsche Dialektgeographie, Heft 2.) Marburg: Elwert.
Lerchner Gotthard. 1971. Zur II. Lautverschiebung im Rheinisch-Westmitteldeutschen. (Mitteldeutsche Studien, 30.) Halle: Niemeyer.
Lessiak Primus. 1933. Beiträge zur Geschichte des deutschen Konsonantismus. Brünn: Rohrer.
Ramisch Jacob. 1908. Studien zur niederrheinischen Dialektgeographie. (Deutsche Dialektgeographie, Heft 1.) Marburg: Elwert.
Rice Keren. 1994. Peripheral in consonants. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 39. 191– 216.Google Scholar
Schirmunski Viktor M. 1962. Deutsche Mundartforschung: Vergleichende Laut- und Formenlehre der deutschen Mundarten. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Schwerdt Judith. 2000. Die 2. Lautverschiebung: Wege zu ihrer Erforschung. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.
Sonderegger Stefan 2003. Althochdeutsche Sprache und Literatur. 3rd ed. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Venema Johannes. 1997. Zum Stand der zweiten Lautverschiebung im Rheinland: Diatopische, diachrone und diastratische Untersuchungen am Beispiel der dentalen Tenuis (voralthochdeutsch /t/). (Mainzer Studien zur Sprach- und Volkforschung, 22.) Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
Vennemann Theo. 1984. Hochgermanisch und Niedergermanisch: Die Verzweigungstheorie der germanisch-deutschen Lautverschiebung. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur (PBB) 106. 1– 45.Google Scholar
Vennemann Theo. 1985. The bifurcation theory of the Germanic and German consonant shifts: Synopsis and some further thoughts. Papers from the Sixth International Conference on Historical Linguistics, ed. by Jacek Fisiak, 527– 547. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Vennemann Theo. 1988. Preference laws for syllable structure and the explanation of sound change. With special reference to German, Germanic, Italian, and Latin. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wahlenberg Friedrich W. 1871. Die niederrheinische (nord-rheinfränckische) Mundart und ihre Lautverschiebungsstufe. Programm des Katholischen Gymnasiums an der Apostelkirche zu Köln 4, 1– 18. Cologne.Google Scholar