Consonant Change in English Worldwide: Synchrony Meets Diachrony (Palgrave Studies in Language History and Language Change)

Applying insights from variationist linguistics to historical change mechanisms that have affected the consonantal system of English, Daniel Schreier reports findings from a historical corpus-based study on the reduction of particular consonant clusters and compares them with similar processes in synchronic varieties, thus defining consonantal change as a phenomenon involving psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, phonological theory and contact linguistics. Moreover, he weighs the impact of external and internal effects on causation, examining data from a total of fifteen varieties with different time depths and social histories. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 List of Tables......Page 10 List of Figures......Page 12 Acknowledgements......Page 14 List of Abbreviations......Page 16 1 Introduction......Page 18 1.1 Phonotactic language change: an interdisciplinary approach......Page 22 1.2 Scope, outline and structure......Page 29 2 Consonant Clusters: General Observations......Page 33 2.1 Consonant clusters and syllable structure......Page 35 2.2 Change and adaptation mechanisms......Page 56 2.3 Causes and motivations: a first approach......Page 62 2.4 Conclusion......Page 71 3 Initial Cluster Reduction in English......Page 73 3.1 Historical loss of initial clusters in British English......Page 75 3.2 /hw-/ > /w-/ in post-colonial English, with special reference to New Zealand......Page 99 3.3 Initial cluster loss in language contact conditions......Page 130 3.4 Conclusion......Page 139 4 Final Cluster Reduction in English......Page 143 4.1 A typology of consonant cluster reduction in English, revisited......Page 146 4.2 Four case studies: final CCR in New Zealand and South Atlantic English......Page 154 4.3 Final CCR in English around the world: a comparative analysis......Page 175 4.4 Word-final CCR in English: summary......Page 213 5.1 Variation and differentiation......Page 215 5.2 Implications for language change......Page 229 5.3 A psycholinguistic explanation?......Page 234 6 Summary and Conclusion......Page 238 Notes......Page 243 References......Page 247 C......Page 261 H......Page 262 N......Page 263 S......Page 264 Z......Page 265 Applying insights from variationist linguistics to historical change mechanisms in the English consonant system, Daniel Schreier reports findings from an historical corpus-based study on the reduction of various consonant clusters and compares them with similar processes in synchronic varieties. He therefore defines consonantal change as a strictly interdisciplinary phenomenon that involves fields as distinct as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, phonological theory and contact linguistics. Moreover, he pinpoints the impact of external effects through the examination of data from fifteen varieties with different time depths and social contact histories, ranging from language shift, bilingualism and koiňisation to pidginisation and creolisation Findings from all these varieties are analysed with the aim of investigating how contact histories foster variation and change; how consonantal change is governed by internal constraints; and also how universal coarticulation patterns are intensified through linguistic contact and transfer of CV/CVC syllable structures. Applying insights from variationist linguistics to historical change mechanisms that have affected the consonantal system of English, Daniel Schreier reports findings from a historical corpus-based study on the reduction of particular consonant clusters and compares them with similar processes in synchronic varieties, thus defining consonantal change as a phenomenon involving psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, phonological theory and contact linguistics. Moreover, he weighs the impact of external and internal effects on causation, examining data from a total of 15 varieties with different time depths and social histories. "Applying insights from variationist linguistics to historical change mechanisms in the English consonant system, Daniel Schreier reports findings from a historical corpus-based study on the reduction of various consonant clusters and compares them with similar processes in synchronic varieties. He therefore defines consonantal change as a strictly interdisciplinary phenomenon that involves fields as distinct as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, phonological theory and contact linguistics."--Jacket. Applying insights from variationist linguistics to historical change mechanisms that have affected the consonantal system of English, the author reports findings from a historical corpus-based study on the reduction of particular consonant clusters and compares them with similar processes in synchronic varieties.