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Abrupt and Gradual Sound Change in an Expanding Lexicon

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The document discusses the dynamics of sound change in language, proposing two hypotheses: the Rate Hypothesis, which posits that sound change occurs either abruptly or gradually based on the destabilization of existing systems by social and cultural forces, and the Variation Hypothesis, which suggests that abrupt changes lead to greater diversity in sound structures than gradual changes. These hypotheses were tested using a computational model called the Lexicon Expansion Model (LEM), which simulates how variable pressures affect sound structure evolution. The findings indicate that strong pressures induce abrupt changes with less optimal structures, while weak pressures result in gradual changes that maintain functionality. Overall, the study reconciles the apparent paradox of abrupt versus gradual sound change within a unified framework.

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What is sporadic sound change in linguistics?

In a linguistic context, sporadic changes refer to the replacement, over some arbitrary interval of time, of one phoneme in one place by another and are analogous to single nucleotide or amino acid substitutions in gene sequences.

What is an example of a sound change in language?

Example: Old English Englaland became Modern English England, or the common pronunciation of probably as [ˈprɒbli]. This change usually affects commonly used words. The word haplology itself is sometimes jokingly pronounced haplogy.

What are the 3 types of sound change?

There are many types of sound change, including the following: Aphesis and Apocope. Assimilation. Dissimilation and Haplology.

What are examples of sound change in linguistics?

What is it called when sound changes?

In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system of oppositions among its phonemes. Old contrasts may disappear, new ones may emerge, or they may simply be rearranged.

What is the most common sound change?

Assimilation is by far the most important sound change. Assimilation is when a sound changes to become more similar to the surrounding sounds. A consonant may change to match the place or type of articulation of an adjoining consonant. In English, /n/ often becomes [ ɱ] (labiodental) before / f/, like in .

What is the sound change in a language called?

(The area is also often called historical phonology and sometimes phonological change.) Sound change is a core area of historical linguistics (see the separate Oxford Bibliographies article Comparative-Historical Linguistics by Joseph Salmons) and has been since the beginning of modern linguistics.

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