Pub Date : 2023-01-05DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10023
Mei-Shin Wu, Johann-Mattis List
Compounding and derivation are frequent in many language families. As a consequence, words in different languages are often only partially cognate, sharing some but not all morphemes. While partial cognates do not constitute a problem for the phonological reconstruction of individual morphemes, they are problematic for phylogenetic reconstruction based on comparative word lists. We review current practices of preparing cognate-coded word lists and develop new approaches that make the process of cognate annotation more transparent. Comparing four methods by which partial cognate judgments can be converted to cognate judgments for whole words on a newly annotated data set of 19 Chinese dialect varieties, we find that the choice of conversion method has an impact on the inferred tree topologies that cannot be ignored. We conclude that scholars should take great care with cognate judgments in languages in which compounding and derivation are frequent and recommend always assigning cognates transparently.
{"title":"Annotating cognates in phylogenetic studies of Southeast Asian languages","authors":"Mei-Shin Wu, Johann-Mattis List","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Compounding and derivation are frequent in many language families. As a consequence, words in different languages are often only partially cognate, sharing some but not all morphemes. While partial cognates do not constitute a problem for the phonological reconstruction of individual morphemes, they are problematic for phylogenetic reconstruction based on comparative word lists. We review current practices of preparing cognate-coded word lists and develop new approaches that make the process of cognate annotation more transparent. Comparing four methods by which partial cognate judgments can be converted to cognate judgments for whole words on a newly annotated data set of 19 Chinese dialect varieties, we find that the choice of conversion method has an impact on the inferred tree topologies that cannot be ignored. We conclude that scholars should take great care with cognate judgments in languages in which compounding and derivation are frequent and recommend always assigning cognates transparently.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45018939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-19DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10024
E. Luef
The significance of the phonological neighborhood on lexical processing has been documented by decades of studies in the field, and it has become clear that the phonological connectivity of the mental lexicon is a crucial facilitator for word learning in both the production and perception domains. What has remained underrepresented in the literature to date is the question of how phonological or phonetic changes are accommodated by phonological neighborhoods, or put differently, what the implications of language processing are for language change. The present study investigates how two changes in voice onset time (VOT) in Austrian German onset plosives have appeared in certain types of phonological neighborhoods. Inferences about which phonological neighborhood characteristics are most conducive to sound change are drawn. Results vary by fortis/lenis articulation, with changes in lenis VOT shortening and fortis VOT lengthening being linked to different types of neighborhoods in two different generations of speakers.
{"title":"Phonological neighborhood complexity and sound change","authors":"E. Luef","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The significance of the phonological neighborhood on lexical processing has been documented by decades of studies in the field, and it has become clear that the phonological connectivity of the mental lexicon is a crucial facilitator for word learning in both the production and perception domains. What has remained underrepresented in the literature to date is the question of how phonological or phonetic changes are accommodated by phonological neighborhoods, or put differently, what the implications of language processing are for language change. The present study investigates how two changes in voice onset time (VOT) in Austrian German onset plosives have appeared in certain types of phonological neighborhoods. Inferences about which phonological neighborhood characteristics are most conducive to sound change are drawn. Results vary by fortis/lenis articulation, with changes in lenis VOT shortening and fortis VOT lengthening being linked to different types of neighborhoods in two different generations of speakers.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47433620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-07DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10022
Hilde Gunnink, Natalia Chousou-Polydouri, K. Bostoen
In this paper we present a new, lexicon-based phylogeny of 34 Southern Bantu languages, and combine it with previous insights from linguistics, archaeology, and genetics to study the history of Southern Bantu languages and their speakers. Our phylogeny shows all Southern Bantu languages to derive from a single, direct ancestor, which contrasts with archaeological evidence indicating separate migrations of Bantu speakers into southern Africa. This suggests that the Bantu languages spoken by the first migrants became extinct, and the ancestor of present-day Southern Bantu languages only emerged in southern Africa during the second millennium CE. We also map the distribution of previously established or suspected Khoisan-derived linguistic features in Southern Bantu languages onto this phylogeny. Evidence for intensive contact with speakers of Khoisan languages also comes from population genetics, which shows that Khoisan linguistic influence is mainly seen in languages spoken by populations displaying a higher degree of genetic admixture.
{"title":"Divergence and contact in Southern Bantu language and population history","authors":"Hilde Gunnink, Natalia Chousou-Polydouri, K. Bostoen","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this paper we present a new, lexicon-based phylogeny of 34 Southern Bantu languages, and combine it with previous insights from linguistics, archaeology, and genetics to study the history of Southern Bantu languages and their speakers. Our phylogeny shows all Southern Bantu languages to derive from a single, direct ancestor, which contrasts with archaeological evidence indicating separate migrations of Bantu speakers into southern Africa. This suggests that the Bantu languages spoken by the first migrants became extinct, and the ancestor of present-day Southern Bantu languages only emerged in southern Africa during the second millennium CE. We also map the distribution of previously established or suspected Khoisan-derived linguistic features in Southern Bantu languages onto this phylogeny. Evidence for intensive contact with speakers of Khoisan languages also comes from population genetics, which shows that Khoisan linguistic influence is mainly seen in languages spoken by populations displaying a higher degree of genetic admixture.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46334445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-17DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10021
Eva Zehentner
This paper traces the history of the English dative alternation by means of a quantitative analysis of instances of both the nominal and the prepositional construction in a corpus of Middle English (PPCME2), and compares the results to Wolk et al.’s (2013) data set from ARCHER. I show that the factors impacting the choice of one pattern over the other are subject to change over time: construction choice in Middle English is not straightforwardly predictable by the same factors at play in today’s alternation, but a clearer division based on syntactic semantic-pragmatic variables gradually emerges in the course to Late Modern English. I interpret this development as a prime case of competition, with a focus on (a) the initial emergence of functional overlap and thus competition, and (b) the subsequent creation of “functional niches” of the competing constructions.
{"title":"Competing constructions construct complementary niches","authors":"Eva Zehentner","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper traces the history of the English dative alternation by means of a quantitative analysis of instances of both the nominal and the prepositional construction in a corpus of Middle English (PPCME2), and compares the results to Wolk et al.’s (2013) data set from ARCHER. I show that the factors impacting the choice of one pattern over the other are subject to change over time: construction choice in Middle English is not straightforwardly predictable by the same factors at play in today’s alternation, but a clearer division based on syntactic semantic-pragmatic variables gradually emerges in the course to Late Modern English. I interpret this development as a prime case of competition, with a focus on (a) the initial emergence of functional overlap and thus competition, and (b) the subsequent creation of “functional niches” of the competing constructions.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47189872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-27DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10020
Joan Bybee, Shelece Easterday
Lindblom and Maddieson (1988) observe that “basic” consonants occur in all consonant inventories, but that larger inventories additionally include “elaborated” consonants, which depart from neutral phonation modes, places, and manners of articulation. The hypothesis that larger inventories arise from the smaller ones via sound change is tested here using a database of phonetic processes cataloged from a sample of 81 genealogically diverse languages. The database contains processes that create a large majority of the proposed articulatory elaborations, strongly supporting this hypothesis. We further examine the question of whether the basic consonants are also created by sound change. Our somewhat surprising finding is that certain basic consonants (/p t k b d g m n ŋ s l/) are very rarely created anew, raising questions about how they come to be common in consonant inventories and how they survive processes of sound change and lexical replacement over long periods of time.
Lindblom和Maddieson（1988）观察到，“基本”辅音出现在所有辅音词库中，但较大的词库还包括“精致”辅音，这些辅音偏离了中性发音模式、位置和发音方式。在这里，使用从81种谱系多样的语言样本中编目的语音过程数据库来检验较大的库存通过声音变化由较小的库存产生的假设。该数据库包含创建大部分拟议发音阐述的过程，有力地支持了这一假设。我们进一步研究了基本辅音是否也是由声音变化产生的问题。我们有点令人惊讶的发现是，某些基本辅音（/pt k b d g m nŋs l/）很少被重新创造，这引发了人们对它们如何在辅音清单中变得常见以及它们如何在长时间的声音变化和词汇替换过程中幸存下来的疑问。
{"title":"Primal consonants and the evolution of consonant inventories","authors":"Joan Bybee, Shelece Easterday","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Lindblom and Maddieson (1988) observe that “basic” consonants occur in all consonant inventories, but that larger inventories additionally include “elaborated” consonants, which depart from neutral phonation modes, places, and manners of articulation. The hypothesis that larger inventories arise from the smaller ones via sound change is tested here using a database of phonetic processes cataloged from a sample of 81 genealogically diverse languages. The database contains processes that create a large majority of the proposed articulatory elaborations, strongly supporting this hypothesis. We further examine the question of whether the basic consonants are also created by sound change. Our somewhat surprising finding is that certain basic consonants (/p t k b d g m n ŋ s l/) are very rarely created anew, raising questions about how they come to be common in consonant inventories and how they survive processes of sound change and lexical replacement over long periods of time.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47186292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10019
G. Kaiping, M. Klamer
This paper refines the subgroupings of the Timor-Alor-Pantar (TAP) family of Papuan languages, using a systematic Bayesian phylogenetics study. While recent work indicates that the TAP family comprises a Timor (T) branch and an Alor-Pantar (AP) branch (Holton et al., 2012; Schapper et al., 2017), the internal structure of the AP branch has proven to be a challenging issue, and earlier studies leave large gaps in our understanding. Our Bayesian inference study is based on an extensive set of TAP lexical data from the online LexiRumah database (Kaiping et al., 2019b; Kaiping and Klamer, 2018). Systematically comparing different analytical models and tying them back to the evidence in terms of historical linguistics, we arrive at a subgrouping structure of the TAP family that is based on features of the phylogenies shared across the different analyses. Our TAP tree differs from all earlier proposals by inferring the East Alor subgroup as an early split-off from all other AP languages, instead of the most deeply embedded subgroup inside that branch. The evidences suggests that dialect cluster effects played a major role in the formation of today’s Timor-Alor-Pantar languages.
本文利用系统的贝叶斯系统发育学研究，对巴布亚语帝汶-阿洛-潘塔尔（TAP）家族的子群进行了改进。虽然最近的研究表明，TAP家族包括帝汶（T）分支和阿洛尔-潘塔尔（AP）分支（Holton et al.，2012；Schapper et al.，2017），但AP分支的内部结构已被证明是一个具有挑战性的问题，早期的研究在我们的理解中留下了很大的空白。我们的贝叶斯推理研究基于在线LexiRumah数据库中的大量TAP词汇数据（Kaiping et al.，2019b；Kaiping和Klamer，2018）。通过系统地比较不同的分析模型，并将其与历史语言学的证据联系起来，我们得出了TAP家族的亚组结构，该结构基于不同分析中共享的系统发育特征。我们的TAP树与所有早期的建议不同，它将East Alor子群推断为与所有其他AP语言的早期分离，而不是该分支中嵌入最深的子群。这些证据表明，方言集群效应在今天帝汶阿洛语或潘塔尔语的形成过程中发挥了重要作用。
{"title":"The dialect chain of the Timor-Alor-Pantar language family","authors":"G. Kaiping, M. Klamer","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper refines the subgroupings of the Timor-Alor-Pantar (TAP) family of Papuan languages, using a systematic Bayesian phylogenetics study. While recent work indicates that the TAP family comprises a Timor (T) branch and an Alor-Pantar (AP) branch (Holton et al., 2012; Schapper et al., 2017), the internal structure of the AP branch has proven to be a challenging issue, and earlier studies leave large gaps in our understanding. Our Bayesian inference study is based on an extensive set of TAP lexical data from the online LexiRumah database (Kaiping et al., 2019b; Kaiping and Klamer, 2018). Systematically comparing different analytical models and tying them back to the evidence in terms of historical linguistics, we arrive at a subgrouping structure of the TAP family that is based on features of the phylogenies shared across the different analyses. Our TAP tree differs from all earlier proposals by inferring the East Alor subgroup as an early split-off from all other AP languages, instead of the most deeply embedded subgroup inside that branch. The evidences suggests that dialect cluster effects played a major role in the formation of today’s Timor-Alor-Pantar languages.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45229006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-25DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10018
John Peterson
The present study compares two Indo-Aryan languages, Sadri and Konkani, with respect to their morphological complexity. Based on assumptions made in sociolinguistic typology (e.g., Trudgill, 2011), which forms part of a larger research program investigating the effects of social factors on language structures, this study attempts to reconstruct various aspects of prehistoric society based on the structures of these two modern languages as typical representatives of eastern and western Indo-Aryan, respectively. The results suggest that 2,000–2,500 years ago eastern and western Indo-Aryan languages were spoken in very different sociolinguistic environments, with a high degree of ethnic and linguistic diversity in eastern India and a comparatively low level of diversity in the west. The study also confirms the results of other studies which suggest that different areas of grammar, such as nominal and verbal systems, may be affected to different degrees in language contact and that their respective rates of (re)complexification may also differ.
{"title":"A sociolinguistic-typological approach to the linguistic prehistory of South Asia","authors":"John Peterson","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10018","url":null,"abstract":"The present study compares two Indo-Aryan languages, Sadri and Konkani, with respect to their morphological complexity. Based on assumptions made in sociolinguistic typology (e.g., Trudgill, 2011), which forms part of a larger research program investigating the effects of social factors on language structures, this study attempts to reconstruct various aspects of prehistoric society based on the structures of these two modern languages as typical representatives of eastern and western Indo-Aryan, respectively. The results suggest that 2,000–2,500 years ago eastern and western Indo-Aryan languages were spoken in very different sociolinguistic environments, with a high degree of ethnic and linguistic diversity in eastern India and a comparatively low level of diversity in the west. The study also confirms the results of other studies which suggest that different areas of grammar, such as nominal and verbal systems, may be affected to different degrees in language contact and that their respective rates of (re)complexification may also differ.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42745526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-07DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10017
Annemarie Verkerk, Francesca Di Garbo
This paper investigates the sociolinguistic factors that impact the typology and evolution of grammatical gender systems in northwestern Bantu, the most diverse area of the Bantu-speaking world. We base our analyses on a typological classification of 179 northwestern Bantu languages, focusing on various instances of semantic agreement and their role in the erosion of gender marking. In addition, we conduct in-depth analyses of the sociolinguistics and population history of the 17 languages of the sample with the most eroded gender systems. The sociohistorical factors identified to explain these highly eroded systems are then translated into a set of explanatory variables, which we use to conduct extensive quantitative analyses on the 179 language sample. These variables are population size, longitude, latitude, relationship with the Central African rainforest, and border with Ubangi/Central Sudanic languages. All these measures are relevant, with population size and bordering with Ubangi/Central Sudanic being the most robust factors in accounting for the distribution of gender restructuring. We conclude that fine-tuned variable design tailored to language and area-specific ecologies is crucial to the advancement of quantitative sociolinguistic typology.
{"title":"Sociogeographic correlates of typological variation in northwestern Bantu gender systems","authors":"Annemarie Verkerk, Francesca Di Garbo","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10017","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the sociolinguistic factors that impact the typology and evolution of grammatical gender systems in northwestern Bantu, the most diverse area of the Bantu-speaking world. We base our analyses on a typological classification of 179 northwestern Bantu languages, focusing on various instances of semantic agreement and their role in the erosion of gender marking. In addition, we conduct in-depth analyses of the sociolinguistics and population history of the 17 languages of the sample with the most eroded gender systems. The sociohistorical factors identified to explain these highly eroded systems are then translated into a set of explanatory variables, which we use to conduct extensive quantitative analyses on the 179 language sample. These variables are population size, longitude, latitude, relationship with the Central African rainforest, and border with Ubangi/Central Sudanic languages. All these measures are relevant, with population size and bordering with Ubangi/Central Sudanic being the most robust factors in accounting for the distribution of gender restructuring. We conclude that fine-tuned variable design tailored to language and area-specific ecologies is crucial to the advancement of quantitative sociolinguistic typology.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46009909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-10DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10016
R. Mesthrie
This paper explores a possible chain shift in Gujarati dialects, involving the consonants k, kh, c, ch, s, ś, h, ḥ, V̤, and ∅ (where ś denotes IPA [ʃ], ḥ voiceless [h], V̤ a murmured vowel, and ∅ “zero”). The chain shift can be discerned by comparing the colloquial forms in the regional dialects with the standard Gujarati forms and those of Central Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi. This comparison yields the following correspondences, giving the standard and Central Indo-Aryan sounds first: k, kh = c, ch; c, ch = s or ś; s = ḥ; h = V̤ or ∅. The paper demonstrates that this set of correspondences between standard Gujarati and the dialects is a large one, and that it indeed suggests a chain shift, taken up differentially in the various dialects analyzed (Kathiawadi, Surti, Charotari, and Pattani). For the chain shift, the standard is firmly in the Central Indo-Aryan camp, while the dialects analyzed align more closely with Western Indo-Aryan.
{"title":"A chain shift in Indo-Aryan, with special reference to Gujarati dialects","authors":"R. Mesthrie","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper explores a possible chain shift in Gujarati dialects, involving the consonants k, kh, c, ch, s, ś, h, ḥ, V̤, and ∅ (where ś denotes IPA [ʃ], ḥ voiceless [h], V̤ a murmured vowel, and ∅ “zero”). The chain shift can be discerned by comparing the colloquial forms in the regional dialects with the standard Gujarati forms and those of Central Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi. This comparison yields the following correspondences, giving the standard and Central Indo-Aryan sounds first: k, kh = c, ch; c, ch = s or ś; s = ḥ; h = V̤ or ∅. The paper demonstrates that this set of correspondences between standard Gujarati and the dialects is a large one, and that it indeed suggests a chain shift, taken up differentially in the various dialects analyzed (Kathiawadi, Surti, Charotari, and Pattani). For the chain shift, the standard is firmly in the Central Indo-Aryan camp, while the dialects analyzed align more closely with Western Indo-Aryan.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43625838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-04DOI: 10.1163/22105832-bja10015
Xia Hua, F. Meakins, C. Algy, L. Bromham
Linguistic coherence—the co-variation of language variants within speaker repertoires—has been proposed as a key process driving the divergence of language dialects. Previous studies on coherence have been often limited by dataset sizes and analyses. We analyze the use of 185 variables across 78 speakers from the Gurindji community in Australia. We use two multivariate statistical approaches to test whether clusters of variables co-vary with generation, family, household, exposure to Gurindji language speakers and education. Using Discriminant Correspondence Analysis, we find generation is the strongest grouping factor of speakers and co-varies with clusters of variants. Using the Generalized Linear Mixed Model, we find these clusters of variants not only represent a gradual loss of Gurindji language use across generations, but also contribute to distinct patterns of language usage in the different generations. Our study demonstrates the use of multivariate analyses on big datasets to identify sociolects, an important step in linking the ‘micro-level’ processes to the ‘macro-level’ outcomes.
{"title":"Language change in multidimensional space","authors":"Xia Hua, F. Meakins, C. Algy, L. Bromham","doi":"10.1163/22105832-bja10015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Linguistic coherence—the co-variation of language variants within speaker repertoires—has been proposed as a key process driving the divergence of language dialects. Previous studies on coherence have been often limited by dataset sizes and analyses. We analyze the use of 185 variables across 78 speakers from the Gurindji community in Australia. We use two multivariate statistical approaches to test whether clusters of variables co-vary with generation, family, household, exposure to Gurindji language speakers and education. Using Discriminant Correspondence Analysis, we find generation is the strongest grouping factor of speakers and co-varies with clusters of variants. Using the Generalized Linear Mixed Model, we find these clusters of variants not only represent a gradual loss of Gurindji language use across generations, but also contribute to distinct patterns of language usage in the different generations. Our study demonstrates the use of multivariate analyses on big datasets to identify sociolects, an important step in linking the ‘micro-level’ processes to the ‘macro-level’ outcomes.","PeriodicalId":43113,"journal":{"name":"Language Dynamics and Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45275679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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