Juliette Blevins
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 746497 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Juliette Blevins |
| NOMBRES | Juliette |
| APELLIDO | Blevins |
| FIRMA | BLEVINS J |
| AFILIACIONES | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2063-4778 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 49 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 90 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 48 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1992 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Variant patterns of sibilant debuccalization in Camuno
Some varieties of Camuno, an Eastern Lombard variety spoken in Valcamonica, Italy, show clear evidence of what appears to be an unconditioned sound change of S > h , where S had [s] and [θ] variants ( Bonfadini 1995a ; Cresci 2014 ). However, neighboring varieties in the upper parts of the valley retain inherited S and, in at least one village, Cerveno, debuccalization is limited to intervocalic position. In this study, we attempt to explain dial…
Dismantling the universal prosodic hierarchy with possible evidence for the absence of syllables
This commentary offers evidence for three general language types that may lack evidence for syllables as prosodic constituents: mora-dominant languages; foot-dominant languages; and word-dominant languages. It also highlights the important role of native-speaker judgements in identifying these language types
Diachrony and Diachronica
Refining explanation in Evolutionary Phonology
In this paper, we highlight the role of typology in providing an empirical basis for explanation within Evolutionary Phonology with a focus on rare sound patterns and extra-phonetic explanation. Broad typological surveys of sound patterns or macro-typologies that include phonetic detail may, at once, support universal tendencies and document rare sound patterns, offering arguments for theories in which universal tendencies based on phonetic expla…
Statistical evidence for the Proto-Indo-European-Euskarian hypothesis
Based on a new reconstruction of Proto-Basque, and regular sound correspondences between this Proto-Basque and Proto-Indo-European as standardly reconstructed, Blevins (2018) argues that Proto-Basque and Proto-Indo-European have a common ancestor that pre-dates the two proto-languages. Part of this argument is based on proposed Proto-Indo-European/Proto-Basque cognate sets that include basic vocabulary items. In this study we offer statistical su…
Linguistic Clues to Andamanese Prehistory
They were once home to a range of hunter-gatherer societies, who are best known from the descriptions of Man (1883) and Radcliffe-Brown (1914, 1922). These writers, along with the Andamanese themselves, split the population of the Andamans into two primary language/culture groups, the ‘Great Andaman Group’ and the ‘Little Andaman Group’ (Radcliffe-Brown 1922: 11).
Final obstruent voicing in Lakota
Final obstruent devoicing is common in the world’s languages and constitutes a clear case of parallel phonological evolution. Final obstruent voicing, in contrast, is claimed to be rare or nonexistent. Two distinct theoretical approaches crystalize around obstruent voicing patterns. Traditional markedness accounts view these sound patterns as consequences of universal markedness constraints prohibiting voicing, or favoring voicelessness, in final…
Advances in Proto-Basque Reconstruction with Evidence for the Proto-Indo-European-Euskarian Hypothesis
This book presents a new reconstruction of Proto-Basque, the mother language of modern Basque varieties, historical Basque, and Aquitanian, grounded in traditional methods of historical linguistics. Building on a long tradition of Basque scholarship, the comparative method and internal reconstruction, informed by the phonetic bases of sound change and phonological typology, are used to explain previously underappreciated alternations and asymmetr…
Unexpected obstruent loss in initial obstruent–sonorant clusters
The apparent loss of initial obstruents in Basque borrowings from Romance (e.g. laru ≪ Lat. claru ) is striking. While Proto-Basque is generally reconstructed as lacking initial clusters, the expected repair in loans, based on typology, phonology and phonetics, is copy-vowel epenthesis, not obstruent loss. Indeed, there is evidence for a vowel-copy process in Basque in other loans with obstruent–sonorant clusters (e.g. gurutze ≪ Lat. cruce ). We …
Infixation
Evolutionary Phonology
This book presents a comprehensive and critical overview of historical phonology as it stands today. Scholars from around the world consider and advance research in every aspect of the field. In doing so they demonstrate the continuing vitality of one of the oldest sub-disciplines of linguistics
Typological implications of Kalam predictable vowels
Kalam is a Trans New Guinea language of Papua New Guinea. Kalam has two distinct vowel types: full vowels /a e o/, which are of relatively long duration and stressed, and reduced central vowels, which are shorter and often unstressed, and occur predictably within word-internal consonant clusters and in monoconsonantal utterances. The predictable nature of the reduced vowels has led earlier researchers, e.g. Biggs (1963) and Pawley (1966), to sugg…
Analogy in grammar
KL > TL sound change in Germanic and elsewhere
Inhibited sound change
The study of regular sound change reveals numerous types of exceptionality. The type studied here has the profile of regular sound change, but appears to be inhibited where homophony would result. The most widely cited cases of this phenomenon are reviewed and new cases presented. If sound change can be inhibited by impending homophony, how is this to be represented and understood? Here we offer a model of variation-based sound change where categ…
Phonetic explanation without compromise
Blust (2005, 2007a, 2007b) questions the phonetic motivation of a number of well-attested sound changes. One sound change in this class is the purported case of stressed vowel syncope in Mussau, an Oceanic language (Blust 1984, 2001, 2007a). Regular syncopes typically target unstressed vowels. By contrast, loss of stressed vowels is difficult to motivate, due to their inherent prominence. Close inspection of Mussau historical phonology suggests t…
Interpreting Misperception Beauty is in the Ear of the Beholder
In 1910, forty years after receiving his doctorate in Leipzig, Baudouin de Courtenay (1845–1929) published O prawach grosowych (‘‘Phonetic Laws’’). In this work Baudouin summarizes much of his life’s work in modeling sound patterns and sound change, dissecting phonetic laws into psychological laws (linguistic representations), and laws of the manifestation of linguistic representations by means of organic physical media (implementation of linguis…
The Rise and Fall oflSandhi in California Algic
sandhi patterns whereby initial h surfaces as l after certain preverbs. We argue that h § l sandhi in each language originated by the reanalysis of final l in certain preverbs after the presence of l had become opaque. The former presence of l in these preverbs is shown by other internal evidence and Algonquian comparison. Despite the simi-larity of the sandhi patterns, we conclude that they do not support the hypothesis that the California langu…
Paul Newman (2004). Klingenheben's Law in Hausa . (Chadic Linguistics 2.) Cologne
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Nikolaus Ritt (2004). Selfish sounds and linguistic evolution
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A theoretical synopsis of Evolutionary Phonology
1. An overview of Evolutionary Phonology 1.1. Explaining sound patterns Phonology is the study of sound patterns of the world's languages. In all spoken languages, we find sound patterns characterizing the composition of words and phrases. These patterns include overall properties of contrastive sound inventories (e.g. vowel inventories, consonant inventories, tone inventories), as well as patterns determining the distribution of sounds or contra…
Reply to commentaries
1. Evolutionary Phonology The primary goal of Evolutionary Phonology is to explain recurrent sound patterns in spoken languages across time and space. One domain of explanation is diachronic, and much of my own work has focused on diachronic explanations (e.g. Blevins 2004, 2006a, to appear a, to appear b, to appear c, this volume). Another domain of explanation is synchronic. A range of synchronic factors, from the mechanics of speech perception…
Origins of Northern Costanoan ʃak
Proto‐Costanoan numerals for ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, and ‘six’ are reconstructed by Callaghan (1990), leading her to suggest that Proto‐Costanoan may have had a senary (base 6) counting system, as originally proposed by Beeler (1961a). This paper suggests (i ) that Northern Costanoan *ʂak:en ‘six’ is a loan from Proto‐Eastern‐Miwok *ʂak:en ‘six’; (ii ) that, though there is little evidence for a senary counting system in Costanoan, there is eviden…
Yurok Verb Classes
In this paper I detail relationships between verb stems and the conjugation classes to which they belong in Yurok, an Algic language of northwest California. Yurok has four major conjugation classes, with one class, the oo‐class, containing three subclasses defined by distinct third‐person singular forms. I describe two regularities which have not been noted before. First, within the oo‐class, distinct subclasses differing in third singular infle…
Evolutionary Phonology
Evolutionary Phonology is a theory of sound patterns which synthesizes results in historical linguistics, phonetics and phonological theory. In this book, Juliette Blevins explores the nature of sounds patterns and sound change in human language over the past 7000–8000 years, the time depth for which the comparative method is reasonably reliable. This book presents an approach to the problem of how genetically unrelated languages, from families a…
The Origins of Consonant-Vowel Metathesis
We argue against the prevailing view that metathesis is somehow less natural phonetically than other processes and distinguished by a relatively greater phonological motivation. We survey cases of consonant-vowel metathesis-both synchronic processes and diachronic changes-with the goal of understanding how metathesis sound changes arise. We identify two types of CV metathesis, with distinct synchronic properties and distinct historical origins, a…
Nhanda
This work presents a sketch grammar of Nhanda, a Pama-Nyungan language of the central coast of Western Australia presently on the verge of extinction. The grammar presents the general features of the language within the Australian context, followed by a study of Nhanda sound patterns
Klamath Laryngeal Phonology
A Tonal Analysis of Lithuanian Nominal Accent
In this paper I present a tonal analysis of inflection, derivation, and compounding for Standard Lithuanian nominals. I argue that nominal accents in this language surface as a result of rules of high tone insertion and high tone deletion, and that accented morphemes are represented with underlying high tones linked to the appropriate moras. The predictability of circumflex accents in stem-initial and stem-final contexts for unaccented stems is h…
A place for lateral in the feature geometry
Phonological models of feature geometry suggest that the internal structure of segments is highly articulated. Distinctive features are organized hierarchically within the segment, and this hierarchical organization is relatively stable across and within languages. Much recent work has been devoted to determining the precise location of place of articulation features within the hierarchy. In this study, the distinctive feature [lateral] is the fo…
Yurok Syllable Weight
This paper examines syllable weight in Yurok, a highly endangered Algic language of northwestern California. A productive truncation process has only a two-way weight contrast between light and heavy syllables, shortening nouns to a bimoraic word minimum, CVV or CVC. Within the prominence system, however, CVV and CVC syllables must be distinguished. Syllables with long vowels in Yurok always attract stress and are realized with a steady high pitc…
One Case of Contrast Evolution in the Yurok Vowel System
This paper examines a case of contrast evolution in Yurok, an Algic language. Former *e has split into two vowels, e and a, due to phonetically conditioned vowel lowering which was rendered opaque by conditioned loss of /h/. Analyzing all instances of Yurok a and a: as reflexes of *e and *e: provides new insights into verbal paradigms and morphologically related forms. This analysis also has potential implications for the reconstruction of Proto‐…
The Phonology of Yurok Glottalized Sonorants
Yurok, an endangered Algic language of northwest California, has a series of glottalized sonorants which contrast with plain nonglottalized sonorants. Glottalized sonorants have interesting phonological properties which distinguish them from other segment types in Yurok, including a restriction to postvocalic environments and fission under syllabification. In this paper, I analyze sound patterns involving Yurok glottalized sonorants and discuss t…
Final obstruent voicing in Lakota
Final obstruent devoicing is common in the world’s languages and constitutes a clear case of parallel phonological evolution. Final obstruent voicing, in contrast, is claimed to be rare or nonexistent. Two distinct theoretical approaches crystalize around obstruent voicing patterns. Traditional markedness accounts view these sound patterns as consequences of universal markedness constraints prohibiting voicing, or favoring voicelessness, in final…
Nhanta historical phonology
Nhanta is an Aboriginal language of Western Australia which has received little study and is currently on the verge of extinction. Nhanta is unique among the Kartu languages in displaying evidence of initial consonant loss, sonorant fortition (of laterals and rhotics), a length contrast in obstruents, and a distinctive glottal stop. In this paper, we propose sound changes which have given rise to these unique features, based on the comparative me…
A Reconsideration of Yokuts Vowels
One aspect of the Yokuts vowel system which has played a prominent role in the development of phonological theory is the claimed disparity between underlying and surface vowels. A widely held view is that the quality contrast between two long vowels, o: and u:, is neutralized on the surface, due to a context‐free rule of long vowel lowering. In this study, I return to primary data from Yokuts showing that paradigmatic relationships between verbs …
Origins of Northern Costanoan ʃak
Proto‐Costanoan numerals for ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, and ‘six’ are reconstructed by Callaghan (1990), leading her to suggest that Proto‐Costanoan may have had a senary (base 6) counting system, as originally proposed by Beeler (1961a). This paper suggests (i ) that Northern Costanoan *ʂak:en ‘six’ is a loan from Proto‐Eastern‐Miwok *ʂak:en ‘six’; (ii ) that, though there is little evidence for a senary counting system in Costanoan, there is eviden…
Klamath /sˀ/ Clusters
Ponapean Nasal Substitution
Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Place of Morphology in a Grammar (1992), pp. 2-21
An Essay on Stress
An Essay on Stress presents a universal theory for the characterization of the stress patterns of words and phrases encountered in the languages of the world. The heart of the theory is constituted by the formal mechanism for characterizing action at a distance, which is a special case of the formalism needed for the construction of constituent structure.Morris Halle is Institute Professor at MIT. Jean-Roger Vergnaud is Professor of Linguistics a…
The Evolution of Ponapeic Nasal Substitution
Both the synchronic phonology of Ponapean and the diachronic phonology of the Ponapeic subgroup of Micronesian show a process of Substitution, whereby a voiceless geminate obstruent is realized as a homorganic sequence of nasal + voiceless stop: TiTi > NiTi. Such a process is easily described and formalized phonologically, but it appears to have no phonetic basis. Coupled with the cross-linguistic rarity of parallel processes, this suggests that …
Gilyak lenition as a phonological rule 1
This paper offers a phonological analysis of lenition in Gilyak (Nivkh, Nivx), a Paleo‐Siberian language. Gilyak lenition involves spirantization of stops when these stops are preceded by stops, vowels or glides. Underspecified representations are used to express Gilyak lenition as a context‐sensitive feature‐filling rule triggered by the natural class of segments lacking values for the distinctive feature [continuant]. Relative Underspecificatio…
Klamath Laryngeal Phonology
A Tonal Analysis of Lithuanian Nominal Accent
In this paper I present a tonal analysis of inflection, derivation, and compounding for Standard Lithuanian nominals. I argue that nominal accents in this language surface as a result of rules of high tone insertion and high tone deletion, and that accented morphemes are represented with underlying high tones linked to the appropriate moras. The predictability of circumflex accents in stem-initial and stem-final contexts for unaccented stems is h…
The Bimoraic Foot in Rotuman Phonology and Morphology
L'A. demontre que le pied bimoraique joue un role important dans l'attribution de l'accent, la reduplication et dans la maniere de definir le mot minimal en rotumien (melanesien de Rotuma). Un pied minimal bimoraique est utilise pour generer tous les cas de longueurs des voyelles de surface en rotumien. L'analyse tient compte de l'elimination de tous les contrastes de longueurs fondamentaux en rotumien et rend compte de la distribution des voyell…
Nhanta historical phonology
Nhanta is an Aboriginal language of Western Australia which has received little study and is currently on the verge of extinction. Nhanta is unique among the Kartu languages in displaying evidence of initial consonant loss, sonorant fortition (of laterals and rhotics), a length contrast in obstruents, and a distinctive glottal stop. In this paper, we propose sound changes which have given rise to these unique features, based on the comparative me…
A place for lateral in the feature geometry
Phonological models of feature geometry suggest that the internal structure of segments is highly articulated. Distinctive features are organized hierarchically within the segment, and this hierarchical organization is relatively stable across and within languages. Much recent work has been devoted to determining the precise location of place of articulation features within the hierarchy. In this study, the distinctive feature [lateral] is the fo…
Tonality in Austronesian Languages
Nhanda Glottal Stop
Nhanda is unique among the Pama-Nyungan languages of Western Australia in exhibiting a distinctive glottal stop. This paper describes the position of glottal stop within Nhanda phonology and morphology, and proposes two distinct historical origins for the glottal stop. In one case, glottal stop is the reflex of intervocalic glides *y and *w; in the other, it derives from *w {a,)R sequences, resulting in rhotic-glottal stop clusters.
The Origins of Consonant-Vowel Metathesis
We argue against the prevailing view that metathesis is somehow less natural phonetically than other processes and distinguished by a relatively greater phonological motivation. We survey cases of consonant-vowel metathesis-both synchronic processes and diachronic changes-with the goal of understanding how metathesis sound changes arise. We identify two types of CV metathesis, with distinct synchronic properties and distinct historical origins, a…
Trimoraic Feet in Gilbertese
Trimoraic Feet In Gilbertese1 Juliette Blevins and Sheldon P. Harrison Abstract In this paper we present evidence for ternary metrical constituents in Gilbertese (Kiribati), a Micronesian language. The terminal elements of stress feet in Gilbertese are moras, not syllables. Further, the typical foot in Gilbertese contains three moras. These trimoraic constituents are units of stress in Gilbertese, and also define minimal prosodic word size, where…
Untangling Leti Infixation
Leti(nese) is an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Leti, just east of Timor. Descriptions of Leti include Jonker (1932) and van Engelenhoven (1995a, 1996). In this paper, I focus on Leti infixation, a little-studied aspect of Leti morphology. In Leti, infixation yields nouns from verb roots. There are eight distinct phonological forms of the nominalizing affix: the three infixes -ni-, -n-, -i- ; the three prefixes ni-, i-, nia- ; the …
Nhanta and Its Position within Pama-Nyungan
This paper presents a preliminary attempt at establishing the genetic affiliation of Nhanta, an Aboriginal language of the central coast of Western Australia, by means of the comparative method, with additional notes on unique lexical features and suggestive cognates
Klamath /sˀ/ Clusters
A Note on Reduplication in Bugotu and Cheke Holo
Patterns of reduplication in two languages of the Solomon Islands raise important questions concerning the validity of certain cross-linguistic generalizations of modern theories of phonology.
Antigemination
Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetic Sources of Phonological Patterns: Synchronic and Diachronic Explanations (2003)
Nhanda
This work presents a sketch grammar of Nhanda, a Pama-Nyungan language of the central coast of Western Australia presently on the verge of extinction. The grammar presents the general features of the language within the Australian context, followed by a study of Nhanda sound patterns
Yurok Syllable Weight
This paper examines syllable weight in Yurok, a highly endangered Algic language of northwestern California. A productive truncation process has only a two-way weight contrast between light and heavy syllables, shortening nouns to a bimoraic word minimum, CVV or CVC. Within the prominence system, however, CVV and CVC syllables must be distinguished. Syllables with long vowels in Yurok always attract stress and are realized with a steady high pitc…
One Case of Contrast Evolution in the Yurok Vowel System
This paper examines a case of contrast evolution in Yurok, an Algic language. Former *e has split into two vowels, e and a, due to phonetically conditioned vowel lowering which was rendered opaque by conditioned loss of /h/. Analyzing all instances of Yurok a and a: as reflexes of *e and *e: provides new insights into verbal paradigms and morphologically related forms. This analysis also has potential implications for the reconstruction of Proto‐…
The Phonology of Yurok Glottalized Sonorants
Yurok, an endangered Algic language of northwest California, has a series of glottalized sonorants which contrast with plain nonglottalized sonorants. Glottalized sonorants have interesting phonological properties which distinguish them from other segment types in Yurok, including a restriction to postvocalic environments and fission under syllabification. In this paper, I analyze sound patterns involving Yurok glottalized sonorants and discuss t…
Evolutionary Phonology
Evolutionary Phonology is a theory of sound patterns which synthesizes results in historical linguistics, phonetics and phonological theory. In this book, Juliette Blevins explores the nature of sounds patterns and sound change in human language over the past 7000–8000 years, the time depth for which the comparative method is reasonably reliable. This book presents an approach to the problem of how genetically unrelated languages, from families a…
A Reconsideration of Yokuts Vowels
One aspect of the Yokuts vowel system which has played a prominent role in the development of phonological theory is the claimed disparity between underlying and surface vowels. A widely held view is that the quality contrast between two long vowels, o: and u:, is neutralized on the surface, due to a context‐free rule of long vowel lowering. In this study, I return to primary data from Yokuts showing that paradigmatic relationships between verbs …
Klamath Sibilant Degemination
This paper documents a recent sound change in Klamath of *ss > s which took place sometime between the late 1800s and the mid 1900s. A phonetic basis for this sound change is proposed, based on the intrinsic duration of short sibilants. This sound change not only explains the absence of geminate sibilants in modern Klamath but also the lack of derived distributive forms which, historically, differed only from nondistributives in the presence of a…
Linguistics (41 obras) · Philosophy (38 obras) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (32 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (29 obras) · History (28 obras) · Computer Science (19 obras) · Phonology (15 obras) · Psychology (13 obras) · Philosophy (12 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (12 obras)