Disyllabic attractors and anti-antigemination in Austronesian sound change

Bibliographic Data

ID20399754
AuthorsRobert Blust (University of Hawaii–West Oahu, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume24
Issue1
Pages1-36
Publication date2007-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhonology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-6757 • E-ISSN: 1469-8188
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0952675707001108
OpenAlexW2145005501
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited38

An overview of the historical phonology of the Austronesian languages shows certain recurrent patterns of change that resemble the synchronic notion of a conspiracy. Over 90% of all lexical bases in Proto-Austronesian and other early Austronesian proto-languages are disyllabic. This dominant pattern, which was transmitted to most of the 1200-plus Austronesian languages spoken today, has tended repeatedly to reassert itself in forms that have come to have other than two syllables. As a structurally defined target that is satisfied by diverse historical changes, this preferential disyllabism can be considered an ‘attractor’ in the sense of Kelso (1995). Perhaps the most interesting consequence of disyllabic attractors in Austronesian historical phonology is the widespread occurrence of syncope only between identical consonants, a pattern that Odden (1988) has characterised in synchronic systems as one of ‘anti-antigemination’

Austronesian languages · Linguistics · Phonology · Sound change · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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