A diachronic account of Present Day Standard Danish stop gradation
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: In certain contexts, Present Day Standard Danish displays an unusual pattern of alternations between voiceless stops and semivowels often referred to as stop gradation . Stop gradation is traditionally considered a synchronic phonological process, but evidence for this analysis is based almost exclusively on non-productive morphology. Here, we argue that the structural generalization captured by a synchronic analysis is better accounted for with reference to the history of Danish, and to well-understood constraints on articulation and perception which led to prosodically conditioned chain shifts and mergers through gradual, continuous changes in the realization of consonant allophones. Inspired by the change-chance-choice model of sound change in Evolutionary Phonology, we outline the historical trajectory that led to the synchronic stop gradation patterns, and the well-known phonetic pressures underlying them; these pressures pulled the allophone distributions of stops in different prosodic contexts in very different directions.
Source: Diachronica
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4405648043