Evolutionary Phonology: The Emergence of Sound Patterns

Evolutionary Phonology is a new theory of sound patterns which synthesizes results in historical linguistics, phonetics, and phonological theory. In this groundbreaking book, Juliette Blevins explores the nature of sound patterns and sound change in human language over the past 7000-8000 years. She presents a new approach to the problem of how genetically unrelated languages, from families as far apart as Native American, Australian Aboriginal, Austronesian, and Indo-European, can often show similar sound patterns, and also tackles the converse problem of why there are notable exceptions to most of the patterns that are often regarded as universal tendencies or constraints. A formal model of sound change is presented that integrates phonetic variation and patterns of misperception to account for attested sound systems, without reference to markedness or naturalness within the synchronic grammar.

Author: Juliette Blevins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 11/12/2007
Pages: 388
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.86d
ISBN: 9780521043649

About the Author
Blevins, Juliette: - Juliette Blevins was formerly Visiting Professor at the Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, and joined the Department of Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, in Fall 2004.

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