•  
  •  
 

Abstract

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.

References

Adelaar, Alexander. 1988. “More on Proto-Malayic”, in: Mohd. Thani Ahmad and Zaini Mohamed Zain (eds), Rekonstruksi dan cabang-cabang Melayu Induk, pp. 59-77. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Adelaar, Alexander. 1992. Proto-Malayic; The reconstruction of its phonology and parts of its lexicon and phonology. Canberra: Australian National University, Research School of Pacific Studies. [Pacific Linguistics Series C-119.]

Adelaar, Alexander. 2005. “Much ado about di-”, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 161/1: 127-142.

Adelaar, Alexander. 2009. “The many origins of the passive prefix di-”, in: A. Adelaar and A. Pawley (eds), Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history; A festschrift for Robert A. Blust, pp. 129-141. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

Adelaar, Alexander and Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds). 2011. The Austronesian languages of South East Asia and Madagascar. Second edition. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. [Routledge Language Family Series; First edition 2005.]

Blust, Robert A. 2013. The Austronesian languages. [Asia-Pacific Linguistics, 008. Australian National University.]

Blust, Robert A. and Steven Trussel. Online. Austronesian comparative dictionary. Honolulu: Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. [Http://www.trussel2.com/acd/.]

Cheng, Chin-Chuan and William S-Y Wang. 1975. “Sound change; Actuation and Implementation”, Language 51: 255-281.

Dempwolff, Otto. 1938.Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes III: Austronesisches Wörterverzeichnis. Berlin: Reimer. [Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen Beiheft 19.]

Hill, Nathan W. 2014. “Grammatically conditioned sound change”, Language and Linguistics Compass 8/6: 211-229.

Hill, Nathan W. 2016. “A refutation of Song’s (2014) explanation of the ‘stop coda problem’ in Old Chinese”, International Journal of Chinese Linguistics 3: 270-281.

Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2011. “Tagalog”, in: A. Adelaar and N.P. Himmelmann (eds), The Austronesian languages of South East Asia and Madagascar, pp. 350-376. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Hock, Hans Henrich. 1991. Principles of historical linguistics. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Klinkert, H.C. 1916. Nieuw Maleisch-Nederlandsch woordenboek. Third revised edition. Leiden: Brill.

Labov, William. 1963. “The social motivation of a sound change”, Word 19/3: 273-309.

Pigeaud, Th.G.Th. 1938. Javaans-Nederlands handwoordenboek. Groningen: Wolters Noordhoff. [Second edition 1982; Leiden: Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology.]

Rasoloson, Janie and Carlo Rubino. 2011. “Malagasy”, in: A. Adelaar and N.P. Himmelmann (eds), The Austronesian languages of South East Asia and Madagascar, pp. 456-488. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Rubino, Carlo. 2011. “Iloko”, in: A. Adelaar and N.P. Himmelmann (eds), The Austronesian languages of South East Asia and Madagascar, pp. 326-349. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Schmid, Heinrich. 1964. “Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der romanischen Zahlwörter”, Vox Romanica 23: 186-238.

Sneddon, James N., Alexander Adelaar, Dwi Noverini Djenar, and Michael C. Ewing. 2010. Indonesian; A comprehensive grammar. Second edition. London: Routledge.

Stevens, Alan M. and A.Ed. Schmidgall-Tellings. 2010. A comprehensive Indonesian-English dictionary. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. [First edition 2004.]

Tuuk, Herman Neubronner van der. 1971. A grammar of Toba Batak. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

Wang, William.1969. “Competing changes as cause of residue”, Language 45: 9-25.

Wilkinson, R.J. 1959. A Malay-English dictionary (Romanized). London: Macmillan.

Woollams, Geoff. 2011. “Karo Batak”, in: A. Adelaar and N. P. Himmelmann (eds), The Austronesian languages of South East Asia and Madagascar, pp. 534-561. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Zoetmulder, P. 1980. Old Javanese-English dictionary. Two Parts. The Hague: Nijhoff. [KITLV publication.]

Download

Share

COinS