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Lydian o-vocalism has proved a difficult problem of historical phonology and the origin of many o-vowels remains unclear. In this paper, one sound law responsible for secondary o-vocalism is presented: the backing of an accented *á when adjacent to k. This sound law provides an etymology for the nominal suffix -oka- and can be supported by several independent data points. One consequence is the elucidation of the word kocwid as meaning 'rite, cult supply', leading to an improved understanding of three separate Lydian passages. An ongoing rounding of á to o when adjacent to f is also hypothesised, based on new evidence with observable a/o-vacillation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary and direct source material for describing phonological dialectal differences is represented by linguistic data found in charters. The source value of the data in particular charters for historical linguistics, however, may vary greatly. This is especially true for the earliest attested era, the early Old Hungarian period, which lasted from 895 to 1350. My study deals with the usability of linguistic records of the early Old Hungarian period. In this period the data found in charters are mainly proper names: place names and personal names, accordingly my examples are also of this category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the etymology of four Mari words: Proto-Mari *čükte- ‘light, set fire to’, *poδəla- ‘spoon, slurp’, *pükte- ‘brood (eggs)’, and *püəž- ‘sweat’. After examining the words structurally, an argument is put forth that the words represent historical derivatives. This analysis is the key to unlocking their phonological development, which then allows us to find suitable cognates elsewhere in Uralic. It is concluded that Proto-Mari *čükte- ‘light, set fire to’ has a cognate in Saami, e.g. SaaN cahkat ‘smolder’, while *poδəla- ‘spoon, slurp’ belongs to the well-established cognate set Proto-Uralic *pala- ‘eat up’. Proto-Mari *pükte- ‘brood (eggs)’ is proposed as a cognate of Saami *pive̮ - ‘stay warm, withstand cold’. It is tentatively suggested in the article that *püəž- ‘sweat’ belongs etymologically together with Proto-Mari *pükte- ‘brood’ and Proto-Saami *pive̮ - ‘stay warm, withstand cold’. Whether these represent a separate Proto-Uralic etymon *pejwə- ‘stay warm’ or whether they belong together with PU *päjwä ‘sun, heat, warm(th)’ is also explored. These findings, despite some of the uncertainties involved in their specific interpretation, highlight the importance of taking historical derivation into account in etymology. Kokkuvõte. Niklas Metsäranta: Ajalooline sõnatuletus: mari etümoloogiaid. Artiklis käsitletakse nelja mari sõna etümoloogiat: algmari *čükte- ‘süütama’, *poδəla- ‘lusikaga sööma, lürpima’, *pükte- ‘hauduma (mune)’ ja *püəž- ‘higi’. Nende sõnade struktuuri uurimus näitab, et nad esindavad ajaloolisi tuletisi. Struktuuriline analüüs on võti ka nende fonoloogilise arengu seletamiseks, mis seejärel võimaldab leida sobivaid vasteid mujalt uurali keeltest. Leitakse, et algmari sõnal *čükte- ‘süütama’ on vaste saami keeltes, näiteks põhjasaami cahkat ‘küdema’, ja sõna *poδəla- ‘lusikaga sööma, lürpima’ kuulub kokku sugulaskeelte sõnadega, mis peegeldavad uurali algkeele *pala- ‘sööma, ahmima’. Algmari *pükte- ‘hauduma (mune)’ vasteks pakutakse artiklis saami sõna *pive̮ - ‘soojust hoidma, külma taluma’. Artiklis tehakse esialgne ettepanek, et mari *püəž- ‘higi’ on etümoloogiliselt seotud algmari sõnadega *pükte- ‘hauduma (mune)’ ja algsaami *pive̮ - ‘soojust hoidma, külma taluma’. Samuti kaalutakse, kas need sõnad esindavad eraldiolevat uraali algkeele sõna *pejwə- ‘soojust hoidma’ või kas kõik kolm kuuluvad kokku uraali algkeele *päjwä ‘päike, kuumus, soe, soojus’ sõnaga. Artikli tulemused, vaatamata mõningale ebakindlusele nende täpse tõlgenduse osas, rõhutavad sõnatuletuse ajalooga arvestamise tähtsust etümoloogias.

This article investigates the role of (spelled) language sounds in early modern Dutch theatre from 1570 until 1800. Using a self-designed computer tool, patterns of spelled language sounds in 167 theatre texts were analysed to investigate how sound patterns can distinguish plays from each other. The findings show that language sounds can characterise specific early modern plays in terms of period, genre, metre and authors. Next, a small sub study demonstrates that language sounds also have a predictive value. Further research with larger datasets can provide us with more insight into linguistic and cultural developments in the Dutch Republic. Series Digital History This article is part of a series on digital history in the Netherlands and Belgium. Eleven years after the publication of the widely-read BMGN-issue on digital history in 2013, this series aims to provide a new state of the field. It comprises four serially published articles, which collectively emphasise the diversity of researchers, questions, methods and techniques that define digital history in 2024. The articles are published online in a new, HTML-based format that better showcases the methods and visualisations of the research published here. Please scan the QR-code to navigate to the HTML-version of this article.

In this article it will be argued that the Old High German i-umlaut phenomena produced phonemic changes before the factors that triggered them off changed or disappeared. When they reached their final stages, the products of i-umlaut became distinctive in the phonological system of the language and contrastive at a lexical level.

Although the phonological history of Tai Nüa can be roughly demonstrated through comparison of its modern dialects against their reconstructed ancestor, namely, Proto-Southwestern Tai, neither the chronology nor the pathway of the transformative sound changes can be established in detail with any certainty. This study demonstrates a more fine-grained understanding of both the chronology and pathway of the sound changes through the examination of the recently available Sino-Baiyi Manual of Translation, a Chinese-Tai Nüa section of bilingual glossary books produced for diplomatic use during the Ming Dynasty. By comparing the phonological inventory of Tai Nüa as attested in this manuscript against the pre-established list of all characterizing sound changes from Proto-Southwestern Tai to Modern Tai Nüa dialects, we chronologize all the sound changes into the pre-16th versus post-16th century changes. Employing the pre- & post-16th century changes as the demarcating criteria, we tentatively propose a tripartite chronological division of Tai Nüa into 1) Old Tai Nüa, 2) Early Modern Tai Nüa, and 3) Modern Tai Nüa dialects.

In this paper, the problems with the reconstruction of an affricate phoneme *Ä and its reflexes in Hungarian are discussed. Proto-Ugric *Ä is often reconstructed, but its alleged reflexes in Hungarian show unexplained variation (s, z, cs), and many of the etymologies involve other phonological irregularities. It is troubling that although in some cases Hungarian shows s and Khanty and Mansi *Ä, often the reflexes of the affricate show discrepancy, with part of the languages showing regular reflexes of Proto-Uralic *Å. In this paper, the Ugric etymologies suggested in earlier etymological sources are analyzed and new solutions to the problem of Proto-Ugric *Ä and its reflexes in Hungarian are suggested. The problems is also related to the study of the reflexes of Proto-Uralic *Ä in Hungarian.

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The well-known deletion of coda sibilants in Old French (11th–14th centuries) induced a compensatory lengthening effect on the preceding vowel, generally described as applying uniformly where coda /s/ was lost. This study highlights and analyzes phonological contexts where lengthening likely did not occur, examining their interaction with stress assignment, vowel quality, schwa adjustment, prothesis, and morphological structure. The Stratal OT analysis formalizes the proposed pattern differentiating the long and short vowel reflexes identified especially for mid vowels: while categorical in tonic syllables and low vowels /a, ɑ/ irrespective of stress, lengthening only prevails in atonic mid vowels when coda /s/ deletion impacts a syllable assigned stress within the specific stratal phonological cycle when /s/ is deleted from input. The resulting length is transmitted and preserved in subsequent stratal cycles regardless of eventual word-level stress reassignment, especially (but not exclusively) because of word-level schwa adjustment, allowing a shift to word-final stress and producing an opacity effect of a long atonic mid vowel inherited from an earlier cycle. The stratal account formalizes observed analogical effects between lexical items and derived forms with respect to vowel quality and length and proposes them to result instead from the interplay of morphology and phonology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the patterns governing the retention and elision of Proto-Uto-Aztecan (PUA) * p in the language groups Nahuan and Corachol can be explained by reference to accent patterns in the most recent shared ancestor Proto-Corachol-Nahua (PCN). The PCN accent can be reconstructed by application of Sapir's law of accent in Nahuan, which posits that accent in pre-Nahuan can be predicted from the patterns of syncope. Comparison shows that the pre-Nahuan accent coincides with lexical accent in Corachol. It is argued that in both language groups * p is retained in accented syllables and weakened to * h (and then elided) in unaccented syllables. Accent appears to interact with the Uto-Aztecan system of consonant gradation. The reconstruction of accent and its effects in Corachol and Nahuan and other SUA languages may permit a better understanding of the relations between the languages and of phenomena that may otherwise appear to be irregular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes that Old French coda /s/ deletion (11th-13th centuries) forms part of a broader diachronic progression of ever-stricter requirements on the sonority contour of /sC/ clusters in syllable contact, reframing part of a well-known moraic analysis (Gess 1998a, 1999, and later work) of Old French coda loss phenomena. Given the multistage rollout of coda /s/ deletion as a function of the sonority of the following onset, an approach hinging on syllable contact constraints not only offers a more detailed and precise formalization of the diachrony of word-medial /sC/ in Old French, but also draws systemic connections with cognate processes affecting /sC/ clusters in early French such as prothesis and earlier Proto-French stop epenthesis. The Optimality-Theoretic analysis presented here formalizes these phenomenological links and the constraints on syllable-contact sonority using the Split Margin Approach to the Syllable (Baertsch 2002, Baertsch & Davis 2003). Rather than sonority-graded mora-licensing constraints causing Old French coda /s/ deletion, the present account argues that their ranking above Faith is instead the acquisitional outcome of the near-total absence of coda /s/ across the lexicon, as a culminative result of the progressive tightening of syllable contact requirements.

This paper reconstructs Proto-Naish initials with lateral main consonants using data from three Naish languages: Lijiangba Naxi (LJ), Malimasa (MM), and Yongning Na (YN). The methodology of using conservative languages, such as Written Tibetan, Burmese, and rGyalrong, in interpreting sound correspondences is emphasized. At least five lateral initials should be reconstructed to Proto-Naish. Initial correspondences relevant to laterals are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviews the reduction of disyllabic Proto-Vietic words to monosyllabic Vietnamese words and the development of Vietnamese voiced fricative onsets. Thompson (1976:1131-1133) in reconstructing Proto-Viet-Muong, and later Ferlus (1982 & 1992) based on his Proto-Vietic reconstructions, hypothesized the spirantization of stops *p/t/c/k and *b/d/j/g in previous intervocalic positions and the loss of presyllables, resulting in Vietnamese onsets 'v' [v], 'd' [z] (from hypothesized Middle Vietnamese *ð), 'gi' [z] (from hypothesized Middle Vietnamese *Ʒ), and 'g/gh' [Ɣ] in monosyllabic words.3 For this study, relevant Proto-Vietic and Old Chinese lexical reconstructions were compared, and the phonological data partially supports this claim while revealing a more complex picture. First, the changes involve classes of sounds rather than specific consonants (e.g., Vietic labial material (excluding nasals or implosives) in intervocalic position becomes Vietnamese ' v' [v] in onset position). Also, while this tendency is dominant in available data, some exceptions exist: (a) reconstructed disyllabic words for which modern Vietnamese items lack lenited onsets and (b) reconstructed monosyllabic words for which Vietnamese items have voiced fricative onsets, but without apparent conditioning factors. Evidence shows these features in modern Vietnamese developed many centuries later than in Sinitic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Linguistica Uralica is the property of Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article has two aims: (1) to survey the main developments of labial fricatives in the history of Frisian; (2) to explain the varied developments of the voiced labial fricative more effectively based on the evidence Old Frisian spellings and reflexes in Modern Frisian dialects. As to the latter aim, it is argued that the currently accepted structural phonological explanation for the emergence of a systematic voicing alternation /f ~ v/ in early Old Frisian is too rigid. In agreement with Theodor Siebs, variable retention and lenition of the voiced bilabial fricative [ β ] presents another way of accounting for many of the Old Frisian spellings and Modern Frisian dialectal forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chen Di's 1606 masterwork of historical phonology, Investigations of the Ancient Pronunciations of the Mao Odes , has been identified as foundational for Qing dynasty text-critical scholarship, providing systematic evidence for historical sound change via comparative analysis of the Odes ' rhyme schemes. I argue, however, that this research was motivated and shaped by Neo-Confucian xinxue commitments to embodied moral knowledge, typically seen at odds with later Qing approaches. Both Chen and his Taizhou school collaborator Jiao Hong located the moral substance of a text not in the intention of its sagely authors, but rather in the authentic emotional experiences prompted by its historically specific phonological and narrative features. Although recent scholarship has begun to reveal how xinxue fostered philological enquiry to reveal universal sagely truths, less well recognized is how xinxue could also motivate investigation of historical contexts—unsettling the division of moral concerns from the production of textual and historical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main Ge‘ez (Classical Ethiopic) verbal adjective is characterized by an ǝ-u vowel melody. Based on cognate evidence, the most basic form of this adjective, 01-stem 1ǝ2u3, derives from a *1a2uː3- pattern and thus shows assimilation of *aCuː > ǝCu. This assimilation does not operate in a set of specialized numerals shaped like 1ä2u3, which should be reconstructed as *1a2u3- with short *u. Short *u also yields Ge‘ez u in the nonaccusative case of the masculine cardinal numerals, like *ɬalaːθtu > śälästu ‘three’; this ending goes back to the Proto-Semitic diptotic nominative. The assimilation of *aCuː > ǝCu, on the other hand, also affected the personal pronoun *huːʔa-tuː > wǝʾǝtu, the perfect of fientive verbs like *gabaruː > gäbru ‘they did’, and the jussive of stative verbs like *yitrapuː > yǝtrǝfu ‘may they remain’. Ə was leveled to other parts of these paradigms, solving several longstanding problems of Ge‘ez morphology.

Chechen, Ingush and Batsbi together form the Nakh subgroup of the East Caucasian language family. Chechen and Ingush, and to a lesser degree Batsbi, underwent regressive vowel assimilation (umlaut). The sound laws that govern umlaut have already been established to some degree. The article focuses on two issues: umlaut rules for the Chechen dialects are worked out in detail on the basis of the Chechen dialectal material provided by Imnajshvili 1977, and the different umlaut effects caused by the mid vowels *e and *o on the one hand and the close vowels *i and *u on the other are highlighted, for both Chechen and Ingush. The conclusions are applied to the reconstruction of the verbal endings of the present tense, Proto-Nakh *‑u, *-o, *-i and *-e, and the endings of the recent past tense, Proto-Nax *-iᶰ and *-eᶰ. Building on work by Handel 2003, the many different inflectional classes of the Chechen and Ingush verb are reconstructed as a relatively simple Proto-Nakh system, where morphological complexity resides almost exclusively in the choice of the aforementioned allomorphs. Finally, following on from Nichols 2003, an attempt is made to reconstruct the Proto-Nakh vowel system beyond Proto-Nakh, by comparing nominal ablaut in Nakh with a very similar phenomenon in Avar-Andic-Dido, which allows us to reconstruct the vowel alternation in detail for Proto-East Caucasian and, specifically, to reconstruct the Proto-Nakh alternation *i ~ *a as Proto-East Caucasian *ɨ in (reconstructed) stressed and unstressed position, respectively.

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article accounts for the acoustic grounds of the diachronic lenition of Old Persian /k/ to [ʧ] and [z] in certain verbal (present tense) and nonverbal forms and to [x] in the past tense of the same verbs, in /V‌‌__ [a, e]/ and /V__[t]/ contexts respectively. In order to replicate the phonetic context of these diachronic changes within the framework of laboratory phonology, present day Persian forms containing the same phonetic contexts were uttered twice by two male speakers of Persian and recorded and analyzed using the Praat software (version 5363). The results of the acoustic analysis of the recorded samples and Independent-Samples t-test indicated that [k] shows a high degree of fronting within the context of the stressed vowels [á, é]. At the same time, aspiration in intervocalic position motivates the spirantization/affrication of this consonant. Intervocalic fronted [c] and [ʧ] are acoustically similar to each other as well as to [ʃ] and [s]. The consonants [c] and [x] have certain common acoustic characteristics when they appear before [t]. Therefore, [c] is prone to be weakened and interpreted as a fricative/affricate in such contexts.

The Croatian hydronym and choronym Lika is often mentioned together with the hydronym Lech (Austria, Bavaria) and with a group of Lithuanian and Latvian hydronyms and other toponyms and appellatives. They are all presumed to be based on the PIE root *(h1)lek- ‘to bend’. Despite the fact that this root is not even mentioned in Julius Pokorny’s Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959), researchers have taken it for granted for decades and used it for etymologizing onyms. It is clear now that this root does not exist. This article will show that the Croatian hydronym and choronym Líka and the Baltic onyms and appellatives are derived from the PIE root *u̯leku̯- ‘to be(come) moist, to moisten’ and are not etymologically related to the name Lech, which is derived from the PIE root *pleh2k- ‘to strike, to flatten’.

This diachronic constraint-based analysis details shifting reflexes in Proto-French (PF) and early Old French (OF) (approximately 2nd-12th centuries) towards the repair of underlying obstruent-nasal clusters, especially where the obstruent is coronal, as well as phonotactically dispreferred /tl, dl/. In earlier PF, deletion and gemination prevail, with gemination broadening scope from flat-sonority clusters to some obstruent-sonorant clusters, including /dl/ and variably obstruent-nasal. Late PF /dn/ assibilates to [zn], avoiding a suboptimal syllable-contact sonority contour, with the end result of both processes finalizing a broader coda obstruent ban before OF. Early OF ecclesiastic loanwords from Latin re-introduce underlying medial obstruent-nasal and /tl, dl/ clusters, with the cluster-final sonorant undergoing the novel repair of rhotacization (/n/ or /l/ " [r]), representing an extension of manner change seen in earlier spirantization and assibilation in the native lexicon. The unified optimality-theoretic analysis identifies and argues for a multi-stage shift in the prioritization of constraints governing the intersecting deletion, gemination, spirantization, assibilation, and rhotacization processes, and their interaction with syllabification, sonority, and phonotactics.

This article seeks to demonstrate that prothetic k - in Arin corresponding to a zero onset in the other Yeniseian languages as featured in words like Arin kul 'water' ~ Kott ûl , Ket ¹u · l ', Yugh ¹ur reflects a Proto-Yeniseian word-initial consonant * u̯- [w]. Drawing on earlier findings concerning the development of Arin k- , it is argued that Proto-Yeniseian * u̯- developed into Arin k- via an intermediate stage * g(u̯)- , and that * u̯- was partly or completely lost in the other Yeniseian languages. Both the development * u̯- > * g(u̯)- > k- and the loss of * u̯- are backed up by typological evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its entirety as much as with regard to its four branches, the Chadic language family poses challenges to the application of the Neogrammarian-school comparative method, not the least because of the immense time-depth involved and aggravated by certain typological peculiarities of Chadic phonology and morphology as inherited from its Afroasiatic ancestry. This is particularly true for Central Chadic, which—with 80 languages—is the most numerous and most diverse branch of Chadic, which in total counts almost 200 languages and thereby more than half of all known Afroasiatic languages. Both more or less 'regular' and 'sporadic' sound changes criss-cross the territories currently occupied by speakers of Central Chadic languages in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad, which allow confident identification of cognates. Some cognates have survived many millennia of language history practically unchanged with regard to their phonetic realisations, while others differ remarkably from the reconstructed proto-language forms beyond ad hoc recognisability. Recent historical comparative research by Richard Gravina (2014, 2015) and the present author (2022, 2023) involving 66 spoken languages and some 230 cognate lexical items have unearthed much of the linguistic histories behind the massive synchronic diversity of the modern Central Chadic languages. The recent research by the author has added to our understanding of historical Central Chadic phonology by unravelling the phonological processes by which the languages have developed sets of new phonemes, in addition to tracing more or less 'regular' and 'sporadic' sound changes that the PCC segmental inventories of vowels and consonants underwent. Modern Central Chadic languages show sets of innovative vowels and consonant whose emergence can largely be attributed, besides occasional instances of segmental fusion, to the 'colouring' effects of so-called prosodies. This makes the analysis of prosodic features such as palatalisation, labialisation, prenasalisation and glottalisation essential in order to understand the evolution of modern Central Chadic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-known deletion of coda sibilants in Old French (11th–14th centuries) induced a compensatory lengthening effect on the preceding vowel, generally described as applying uniformly where coda /s/ was lost. This study highlights and analyzes phonological contexts where lengthening likely did not occur, examining their interaction with stress assignment, vowel quality, schwa adjustment, prothesis, and morphological structure. The Stratal OT analysis formalizes the proposed pattern differentiating the long and short vowel reflexes identified especially for mid vowels: while categorical in tonic syllables and low vowels /a, ɑ/ irrespective of stress, lengthening only prevails in atonic mid vowels when coda /s/ deletion impacts a syllable assigned stress within the specific stratal phonological cycle when /s/ is deleted from input. The resulting length is transmitted and preserved in subsequent stratal cycles regardless of eventual word-level stress reassignment, especially (but not exclusively) because of word-level schwa adjustment, allowing a shift to word-final stress and producing an opacity effect of a long atonic mid vowel inherited from an earlier cycle. The stratal account formalizes observed analogical effects between lexical items and derived forms with respect to vowel quality and length and proposes them to result instead from the interplay of morphology and phonology.

The Tibetic language Brokpa exhibits a number of archaic properties regarding its phonology. However, one also finds some shared Tibetic innovations and features which likely arose due to contact with non-Tibetic languages. This article discusses selected features belonging to the three above-mentioned categories such as the retention of initial clusters of bilabial plosives and /r/, the reflexes of other selected initial clusters, correspondences of syllable-final Written Tibetan , , and , the lack of a voiced dental fricative /dz/ as well as the loss of voicing distinction of the syllable onsets as a starting point of tonogenesis.

The present study focuses on the Proto-Turkic phoneme */d₂/ in intervocalic position, which can be reconstructed only through external data from Mongolic and other Altaic languages. For this phoneme, four examples are presented. These are *kad₂a ‘rock’, *äd₂iä ‘master, lord’, and *k₂ad₂a- ‘to save, keep safe, take care of something’. The fourth example is Proto-Turkic *ud₂a- ‘to be late’. It yielded the Common Turkic noun *uyag ‘late’ but survived in Mongolic as *uda-.

The article offers a new solution to the unexpected occurrence of -θ-, rather than **-τ-, in οἶσθα 'you know' < *uoid-th2e. It is proposed that this form first became *woitsta, as expected, and then underwent the same development as seen in *pst > *phsth (> phth, cf. *seps-tos > ἑφθός 'boiled') and *kst > *khsth (> khth, cf. *h1eḱs-tos > ἐχθός 'outside'), i. e. *tst > *thsth, before losing the first stop of the cluster. The isolation of the ending -θα meant that there was no source for restoration, unlike in all other cases of *tst (e. g. ἴσ-τε 'you (pl.) know', ἄισ-τος 'unseen'). Incidentally, the proposed sound law by which all voiceless stops in TsT-clusters, including those which were later simplified to sT, were aspirated by *s also allows us to straightforwardly trace ἔσχατος 'uttermost' back to *h1eḱs (*ἔξ-κατος > *ἔχσχατος > ἔσχατος), to consider the possibility that ἐσθίω 'to eat' was based on the 3sg.pres. *h1ed-ti 'eats' > *ἔσθι rather than on the imperative, and to connect the word group of αἰσχρός 'causing shame' < *h2eid-sk- with that of αἰδώς 'shame' < *h2eid-. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper addresses one of the open issues in the reconstruction of Proto-Tupi-Guarani (PTG) segmental phonology: The status of the *k -*kʲ opposition. We argue that the contrast is artifactual and that the presumed evidence in favor of PTG *kʲ can be considered as secondary developments of PTG *k in Kayabí, Guarayu, Kagwahiva, Tenetehára, Kamayurá, and Ka’apor. We establish additional facts regarding the structure of PTG and the historical phonology of TG languages, also showing that this finding eliminates the need for an unmotivated split in Pre-PTG history, a problematic feature of current reconstructions of the Proto-Tupian consonant system.

It has been a long time since Basque dialectologists investigated, from a synchronic point of view, a whole series of vowel interaction phenomena grouped under the name of euphonies. However, the investigation of the history of these phenomena has been relegated among Basque diachronists due, among other reasons, to the fact that they are relatively modern and do not allow us to reconstruct prehistoric stages. In this paper, I present the historical evolution of epenthetic -ubV, an innovation that emerged in the Old Basque period. Specifically, I have analyzed the first testimonies, the texts and places where it is documented, and the historical trends of its use, taking into account both folk varieties and the printed and canonical written tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The paper investigates the potential usefulness of the Khitan language in research on the Hungarian language. It is noted that a significant portion of Old Turkic loanwords in Hungarian were borrowed from West Old Turkic, which is believed to have been based on an Oguric language. The author agrees with the view that the sounds represented by *r and *l, lč are Oguric innovations, as opposed to *z and *r, as discussed in more detail in WOT. 1104-1114. The Oguric language can be reconstructed with the help of sources such as Chuvash, Volga Bulgarian inscriptions, Danube Bulgarian inscriptions, and scattered data on the Bulgars, Khazars, and other groups. Additionally, the Mongolic language may also provide insights into Oguric and its relationship with Hungarian, as Mongolic borrowed from a similar or closely related Oguric language. An example of this is the Hungarian word for 'ox' which is ökör which is in Chuvash word văkăr (<*ökür), in Mongolic üker, and differs in the final of the Oguzic word öküz. The paper then provides a brief overview of recent research on Middle Mongolian and archaic Mongolian dialects, which has revealed new information about the presence of Oguric words existing also in Hungarian. For example, the Middle Mongolian form hüker and archaic Mongolic forms may allow for the reconstruction of a *höker form, which may be relevant for the Hungarian geaographic data Hwkurithou [hüküritó] 'ox watering (place)' from 1326/1428. The paper also discusses words that are thought to be Oguric loanwords in Hungarian, but do not have parallels in the Turkic languages. One example is the Hungarian word for 'hawk' ölyv which is present only in Mongolic (and Yakut, which borrowed it from Mongolic). This bird name is also present in archaic Mongolic languages such as MonguorM x-liuliu, BaoanD heluŋ, BaoanÑ he:le, and Dongxiang h-lie. NUGTEREN suggested a likely etymology from -*héli-'to float, soar (as birds of prey)' and argued that this indicates that the word is of Mongolic origin (2011: 353). It may be of interest that the Hungarian word Hwlues from 1367 has the same h- as the Mongolic data. Another example is the Hungarian word torontál 'a kind of small falcon' which has parallels in Turkic languages, but has a clear Mongolic suffix -tai. These and other words may suggest that some Old Mongolic words entered the Hungarian language via Oguric. The paper notes that Khitan, like Mongolic and Hungarian, has loanwords from the same Oguric language. After providing a brief overview of recent research on the Khitan language, the paper discusses examples of these loanwords, including Khitan dele 'south' ~ Mong düli 'noon' ~ Hungarian dél 'south, noon'; Khitan t-qo-a, Mong *takigan, Hungarian tyúk 'hen'; Khitan uni, Mong üniyen, Hungarian ünő 'heifer'. The Khitan data are helpful in reconstructing the phonetics and meanings of the Oguric words borrowed by Hungarian. In conclusion, the paper raises the question of whether the Oguric words reached the common Khitan-Mongolic protolanguage or were borrowed separately after the dissolution of the protolanguage. Further research is needed to determine the answer to this question. Nonetheless, the study of Khitan can help to deepen our understanding of the history of these languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Ever since the Afroasiatic affiliation of Chadic as a whole was suggested by Joseph H. Greenberg in his seminal re-classification of African languages since the 1950s and has been generally accepted, i.e. encompassing both ‘Chado-Hamitic’ and ‘Chadic’ languages of influential pre-Greenbergian genetic classifications, the issue of whether Proto-Chadic possessed prenasalised obstruents and velar nasals has been repeatedly raised and debated in the literature, yet without final consent. All of the 196 presently known Chadic languages would appear to possess these consonants in their synchronic phonemic inventories. The present article reviews the debate in view of recently available new insights on the historical phonology and lexical reconstruction based on data from 66 of the 79 known Central Chadic languages, i.e. the most numerous and most diverse branch of Chadic. According to these recent comparative studies of Central Chadic that allow to reconstruct Proto-Central Chadic phonology and lexicon, there is massive evidence to show that both velar nasals and prenasalised obstruents emerged as results of natural phonological processes probably already on the proto-language level, but need not be reconstructed for the proto-language’s phonemic inventory. And if Proto-Central Chadic did not have these consonants as inherited phonemes, then this would also be true for its predecessor, Proto-Chadic. The major processes leading to the emergence of velar nasals and prenasalised obstruents were segmental fusion and the emergence of prensalisation prosody that arose from the de-segmentalisation and prosodification of reconstructed nasals. The article summarises the evidence and gives illustrative examples for the reconstructed phonological processes, which created conditioned allophones that eventually became phonologised yielding synchronic phonemes in the modern Central Chadic languages.

George Y. Shevelovʼs Contribution to Slavic Historical- Comparative Linguistics with a Focus on Language Contact: Remarks on A Prehistory of Slavic On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the death of the Ukrainian linguist G. Y. Shevelov, this article attempts to evaluate his contribution to historical-comparative linguistics. Commenting on his pivotal work A Prehistory of Slavic: The Historical Phonology of Common Slavic (1964/1965), we mainly focus on how Shevelov understood the role of language contact in the development of languages in general and in the phonological development of Common Slavic in particular. His approach is analyzed with the help of our concept of para­digms of historical-comparative linguistics, working with the conventionalist, revisionist, and revolutionary paradigms. Wkład Jurija Szewelowa w językoznawstwo historyczno-porównawcze języków słowiańskich ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem kontaktu językowego. Uwagi na temat dzieła A Prehistory of Slavic Z okazji 20. rocznicy śmierci ukraińskiego językoznawcy Jurija Szewelowa niniejszy artykuł podejmuje próbę oceny jego wkładu w językoznawstwo histo­ryczno-porównawcze. Komentując jego kluczowe dzieło A Prehistory of Slavic: The Historical Phonology of Common Slavic (1964/1965), skupiamy się głównie na tym, jak Szewelow rozumiał rolę kontaktu językowego w rozwoju języków w ogóle, a w rozwoju fonologicznym języka prasłowiańskiego w szczególności. Jego podejście jest analizowane za pomocą naszej koncepcji językoznawstwa historyczno-porównawczego, która obejmuje paradygmaty: kon­wencjonalistyczny, rewizjonistyczny i rewolucyjny w języku.

This study introduces and analyzes proximal and distal singular demonstratives in fourteen varieties of Musandam Arabic, a little-documented dialect group located on Musandam Peninsula in northern Oman and neighbouring areas of the United Arab Emirates. Following an overview of the dialect group in its regional context, the study provides a description of singular demonstratives from the point of view of phono-logy, morphology, and geographical distribution. The study then focuses on two salient features found in several of the varieties under investigation: gender distinction based on consonantal alternation (d -based masculine forms vs t -based feminine forms); and gemination of the feminine t -element. While the former is attested, albeit rarely, in other Arabic dialects, the latter is unheard of. In the last section of the article, some hypotheses are put forward as to how these forms could have developed from a historical point of view, in light of data from different Arabic and Semitic varieties. While the gemination of the t -element is best regarded as a Musandam-internal innovation, the d : t consonantal alternation reinforces the putative historical link between south-western Arabia and Oman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been recent advances in the phonological reconstruction of the South-Central (“Kuki-Chin”) branch of Trans-Himalayan (Tibeto-Burman), in particular by VanBik (2009). However, the Northwestern (“Old Kuki”) subgroup, generally considered to be conservative, is not represented in this work as reliable data have not been available. The present study provides a comprehensive documentation of the historical phonology of one Northwestern language, Monsang. The unexpected finding is that Monsang cannot be considered conservative in its phonological development. A large number of sound changes have occurred across all phonological domains. The majority of sound changes are mergers, and with small exceptions, no unusual sound changes are found. As a result, the diachronic development of Monsang can be considered a case of reduction in phonological complexity.

Our current understanding of the historical phonology of the Lanna Tai language, a variety of Southwestern Tai spoken by the majority in the northern part of Thailand, is largely limited to two stages: modern dialects and the reconstructed Proto-Southwestern Tai.

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Many scholars have held that in late Middle English, in the London dialects from which Standard English grew there existed a vowel /y:/ developed from various native sources and/or used as a substitute for Old French or Anglo-Norman /y/. The aim of this article is to accurately review the relevant evidence adduced by E. J. Dobson and other scholars in favour of a variation between early Modern English /y:/ and /iu/ with a view to offering conclusions based on a direct presentation of the original sources. It will be shown that even the early writers on orthography and pronunciation who correctly describe a sound [y] (as they knew it from French, Scottish and Northern English, as well as from other languages) cannot be adduced as evidence for the existence of a vowel /y:/ in early Modern English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contains new etymological entries to Berber lexical roots and is part of a long-range series eventually resulting, when completed, in materials for an etymological dictionary of Berber, a desired addition to the fascicles of the comparative dictionary of Berber roots (DRB). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is a new contribution to revealing the Afro-Asiatic heritage in the lexical root stock of the Dangla--Migama group of Chadic languages by means of inter-branch comparison primarily using, among others, the ancient Egypto-Semitic etymological evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The devoicing of sibilants took place in Early Modern Spanish, a phenomenon which has been considered problematic to account for due to its occurrence context (medial intervocalic position). Traditional explanations invoked Basque influence or a structural reorganization in search for a more balanced system. However, phonetically based reasons were proposed by some scholars. This research is a preliminary attempt to support these proposals with experimental data from a comparative grammar perspective. The Catalan sibilant system, which is very similar to the Medieval Spanish one, is acoustically and perceptively studied in order to investigate the acoustic cues of voicing and to determine if devoicing is possible. Results indicate that (a) voicing relies mainly in the proportion of unvoiced frames of the segments, on its duration, and, to a lesser extent, on its intensity; (b) sibilant devoicing occurs in all voiced categories; (c) auditorily, confusion between voiced and voiceless segments can be attested for every sibilant pair, and (d) the misparsings are more common in affricate and in palatal sibilants, [d͡ʒ] being the most prone to be labelled as unvoiced. These findings prove that the historical process in Spanish could have a phonetic basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Devoicing of Voiced Obstruents (DVO) was part of a transformative series of sound changes that characterised all the Tai languages: the original voiced stops became either aspirated or unaspirated when devoiced. Although previous studies show that they occurred before the 17th century (Harris, 1992; Pittayawat 2016), their precise dating is still unclear. While Brown (1965) and Chamberlain (1991) hold that DVO occurred prior to 13th Century, Shintani (1974) and Gedney (1989 [1978]) place it around 14th-17th Century. To arrive at the chronology of the sound change, I examine transcriptions of Siamese personal names in The Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty (Míng Shí Lù – MSL), using Quasi-Early Nanjing Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese characters as the basis for sorting the correspondence. A careful analysis reveals that the Siamese original voiced stops started to be transcribed by the Chinese original voiceless aspirated stops in 1440s. This became prominent after 1480s, suggesting a completion of DVO by that time. The transcription patterns of the Siamese original voiced stops though imply a gradual transition from original voiced to breathy stops, and eventually to voiceless aspirated stops.

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This paper presents a set of lexical correspondences between Jinghpaw and Proto-Kuki-Chin as reconstructed by VanBik (2009) which have no attested comparanda outside the hypothesized Central branch of Trans-Himalayan/Sino-Tibetan suggested by Bradley (1997) and DeLancey (2021). Jinghpaw and South Central/Kuki-Chin represent two hypothesized groupings, Sal and Kuki-Naga, which are the major constituents of this proposed branch, so these comparisons are adduced as potential evidence for the Central hypothesis. Included in these lexical comparisons is a substantial number of sets where there are Jinghpaw comparanda for one or the other, or both, of the alternating verbal stems reconstructed for PKC. It is argued that these represent particularly strong evidence for a special genealogical connection between the languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]