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New perspectives on English sound patterns : "Natural" and "Unnatural" in evolutionary phonology

Contenu

Type de document

article de périodique

Titre

New perspectives on English sound patterns : "Natural" and "Unnatural" in evolutionary phonology

Revue/Ouvrage

Journal of English linguistics

Volume-no

Vol.34, n°1

Auteurs/Editeurs scientifiques

Blevins, Juliette

Nombre de pages

20

Date de publication

mars 2006

Pagination

6-25

Langue étudiée

Anglais

Langue

ang

ISBN/ISSN

0075-4242

Résumé

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.