PLANTING THE SEED FOR SOUND CHANGE: EVIDENCE FROM REAL-TIME MRI OF VELUM KINEMATICS IN GERMAN

Carignan, Christopher; Coretta, Stefano; Frahm, Jens; Harrington, Jonathan; Hoole, Phil; Joseph, Arun; Kunay, Esther und Voit, Dirk (2021): PLANTING THE SEED FOR SOUND CHANGE: EVIDENCE FROM REAL-TIME MRI OF VELUM KINEMATICS IN GERMAN. In: Language, Vol. 97, No. 2: pp. 333-364

Abstract

Velum movement signals generated from real-time magnetic resonance imaging videos of thirty-five German speakers were used to investigate the physiological conditions that might promote sound change involving the development of contrastive vowel nasality. The results suggest that, in comparison to when a nasal consonant precedes a voiced obstruent, the velum gesture associated with a nasal consonant preceding a voiceless obstruent undergoes gestural resealing and temporal rephasing. This further suggests that the diachronic development of contrastive vowel nasality comprises two stages: the first stage involves gestural shortening and realignment, while the second stage involves a trading relationship between source and effect.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Languages and Literatures > Department 2
• Subjects: 400 Language > 400 Language
• ISSN: 0097-8507
• Language: English