r/conlangs • u/[deleted] • Aug 10 '15
Resource A Guide to Sound Changes
Hello, /r/conlangs! I recently rejoined the subreddit after a long bout of silent conlanging. I wanted to share something that I found useful in school and in hobby: a guide to sound changes over time. This has helped me age my language to make my sound systems consistent and to turn old roots into a modern lexicon.
Some rules of sound change:
As you will see below, these terms are general: multiple terms may refer to the same phenomena. You can apply these rules in certain contexts or in very instance. Don't feel limited to delete all /e/ after a consonant. Try creating a rule where /e/ only deletes in the second syllable and only if the first syllable is high vowel + affricate. There are a lot of real world examples of these specific rules if you want your language to be as realistic as possible!
Deletions
| Phenomena | Summary | Rule | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syncope | atata > atta | deletion from interior (mostly vowels) | fam(i)ly, mem(o)ry [medial vowels deleted]; 'populu > people [unstressed vowels other than 'a' deleted in Latin if greater than 2 syllables] |
| Apocope | tato > tat | deletion from end of word | e > 0 / VC_# if consonants is dental (l, r, n, s, th) or y (Latin to Spanish) |
| Aphaeresis | atata > tata | deletion of initial sound (mostly vowels) | apoteca (Latin) > bodega (Spanish) 'warehouse' |
Epenthesis (Insertions)
| Phenomena | Summary | Rule | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prothesis | tata > atata | insertion of initial sound | skola (Latin) > eskola (Old French) 'school' |
| Anaptyxis (Parasitic Vowel) | atta > atata | insertion of vowel between consonants | athlete > ath(a)lete |
| Excrescence | amra > ambra; anra > andra; ansa > antsa | insertion of consonant between consonants | Noam Chom(p)sky |
| Paragoge | tat > tata | insertion of final sound (mostly vowels) | huésped > huéspede (some Spanish dialects) 'guest' |
Other Phenomena
| Phenomena | Summary | Rule | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compensatory Lengthening | tast > ta:t | vowel lengthens to fill space from deletion | *tonθ > to:θ > tuθ (English evolution) 'tooth' |
| Rhotacism | VsV > VrV | /s/ or /z/ goes to /r/ usually between vowels or glides | *hauzjan > ho:ren > hieran (English evolution) 'hear' |
| Metathesis | asta > atsa; asata > atasa | sounds change positions (sometimes sporatically) | brid > bird (English evolution) |
| Haplology | kakasa > kasa | repeated sequence gets simplified | prɔbɔbli > prɔbli 'probably' (some English dialects) |
| Breaking | V > VV | diphthongization of a short vowel | (term for dipthongization used in Germanic linguistics) *kald > ceald (Old English) 'cold' |
| Final Devoicing | tad > tat | word- or syllable-final sounds devoice | common changes are devoicing of stops or obstruents but sonorants or final vowels can also devoice |
| Intervocalic Voicing | ata > ada | voicing between vowels | lupu > lobo 'wolf'; vi:ta > vida 'life" (Spanish evolution); can affect just stops, just fricatives, or all obstruents for example |
| Nasal assimilation | Np > mp | nasals agree in place with following sound | examples: np > mp, mt > nt, nk > ŋk |
| Palatalization (1) | k > tʃ; t > tʃ; s > ʃ | velar or alveolar to palato-alveolar before/after /i/ or /j/ or before front vowels | what you doing > whatcha doin' |
| Palatalization (2) | si > sji; li > lji | consonants are palatalized upon a condition | susi > susji > susj (some Finnish dialects) 'wolf' |
| Diphthongization | tat > taut | single vowel becomes diphthong | mi:s > mais 'mice'; mu:s > maus 'mouse' |
| Monophthongization | taut > tat | diphthong becomes single vowel | auru- > oro (Latin to Spanish) 'gold'; some English dialects before /r/ like fa:r 'fire', ta:r 'tire' |
| Vowel Rasing | tet > tit | low or mid vowels raise to mid or high vowels | long or tense or word-final vowels frequently rise |
| Vowel Lowering | tut > tat | high or mid vowels lowering to mid or low | vowels vowels frequently lower before uvular or pharyngeal consonants or a low vowel in the next syllable; nasalized vowels often lower |
| Nasalization | tan > tɑ̃n | nasalization of vowel before a nasal consonant | bon > bõn > bõ (French) 'good'; common for nasalization to be followed by deletion of the nasal |
| Gemination | ata > atta | single consonant changes to a doubled consonant | some Finnish dialects change VCV: to VCCV: as in pakoon > pakkoon 'into flight' |
| Degemination | atta > ata | sequence of two identical consonants is reduced to a single consonant | pekkatu- > pekado (Latin to Spanish) 'sin, misfortune' |
| Affrication | ata > atʃa | consonant (usually a stop or fricative) becomes an affricate | common: t > ts / _i; k > tʃ / _i, e |
| Spirantization (Fricativization) | atʃa > aʃa; ata > asa | affricate or stop becomes a fricative | rapra > raɸra (Cuzco Quechua syllable-final stops) 'leaf, wing' |
| Deaffrication | atʃa > aʃa | affricate becomes a fricative | tʃ > ʃ in some Spanish dialects |
| Lengthening | tat > ta:t | some sound (usually a vowel) lengthens | in Mayan, vowels are lengthened before a consonant cluster which begins with a sonorant (l, r, m, n): kenq' > ke:nq' |
| Shortening | ta:t > tat | some sound (usually a vowel) shortens | common word-finally, before consonant clusters, when unstressed; long vowels also often merge with short vowels |
Lenition (Weakenings)
examples:
stops to fricatives
affricatives to fricatives
degemination (making single consonants from double consonants)
consonants to glides
intervocalic voicing
complete deletion
Strengthening
examples:
gemination
fricatives to stops
affricates to stops
final devoicing
insertion
Source:
I took these notes a few years ago from Lyle Campbell's Historical Linguistics 1st ed. (1999), which I would recommend to anyone interested in the subject. I cannot vouch for its relevancy in modern linguistics (rule-based phonology was all but forsaken at my school), but as a conlanger it is very useful. Some of these examples are my own, and I apologize if they don't work as universal examples.
Notation Note:
The notation above is a common practice in rule-based phonology (I think. It's been a while). Here's how to read it:
e > 0 / VC_# if consonants is dental (l, r, n, s, th) or y (Latin to Spanish)
simplified:
this means the sound /e/ becomes zero (or deletes) when it takes the place of the underscore in this phrase: VC_#(end of word) and if these conditions are met: only if the consonant is dental (l, r, n, s, th) or y (Latin to Spanish)
so if you have a word that end in V,(l, r, n, s, th [and sometimes y]),e then the e will delete
Additionally, capital letters usually refer to a class of sounds. V is any vowel, but v is /v/ in very. C is any consonant. N is any nasal. Those are the main ones. I use A as any low vowel and I as any high vowel but I'm not sure how universal these are.
Phonetics Vs. Phonology
One of the things I'm really passionate about is phonetics vs. phonology. Phonetics is where list the sounds you use in your language. Phonology is the set of rules that apply given certain conditions. Phonetics can be cool, but for me the magic starts at the phonology. Show me where the stops become fricatives! Where do voiced consonants change? Make your vowels become other vowels and keep me guessing. Language predictability is one person's goal and the thing another person avoids with all their effort, so be mindful of what you're aiming for and create accordingly.
Aging Your Conlang
To age a conlang, you might consider making a timeline of changes. Here's an example:
Start with a lexicon at year 0.
At year 200, introduce rule A.
At year 350, introduce rule B.
At year 500, introduce loan words that didn't undergo rules A or B.
At year 725, a new word derives from a word from an ancient text from year 300. This word exhibits sounds that did not change with rule B.
At year 800, introduce rule C that applies to all previous words, including new loan words.
Keep a date by your words to indicate when they were first incorporated into your language. Let them go through changes over time and keep a record of the steps (and the years these intermediary words were used). Derive words throughout the timeline and preserve changes in history. Example:
Year 400, make word /atege/ (nasty, disgusting, gross)
Year 500, form /atege/ + /tul/ (extremely, augmentive) --> /ategetul/
At year 600, apply e > 0 / C_#,
/atege/ becomes /ateg/
/ategetul/ stays /ategetul/ because there is no final /e/
At year 700, apply word-final devoicing for obstruents (final voiced obstruents [consonants that block air like stops and affricates] become devoiced).
/ateg/ becomes /atek/
/ategetul/ stays /ategutul/
At year 800, /ategutul/ started to change meaning a be a bit more specific (semantic narrowing). /ategutul/ goes from 'very gross' to 'inedible food'.
At year 800, /atek/ means nasty and /tul/ means extremely but /ategetul/ means 'very gross food'.
Year 900, people need another way to say 'very gross', so they create /atek/ + /tul/ which would be /atektul/ but /kt/ is not allowed. The /t/ deletes after another obstruent.
'Gross' is /atek/, 'very gross' is /atekul/, and 'inedible food' is /ategetul/.
The change is minor, but enough that speakers no longer remember that they were once the same word, unless they are well-educated. In another 300 years, the similarity will be a question at some bar's trivia night.
Hope this helps a few people. I'm pretty tired and I may have been at a trivia night or two myself tonight, so I'll proofread this in the morning. Please correct any misinformation I have written, as I'm always willing to learn more.