Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the nature of sound change in human language over the past 7000–8000 years. It presents a new approach to the problem of how genetically unrelated languages can often show similar sound patterns, and why there are many exceptions to the patterns often regarded as universal.
Trade Review'The book contains everything that makes a linguistics book fascinating to read: an overview of the field, a provocative theory for explaining phonological facts, and numerous contemporary and historical examples from a wide sample of languages to support the new theory … As a whole, I think the book makes an interesting contribution to the field of phonology. The theory presented proposes that much of the complexity of human sound systems is due to historical processes that are set in motion by different kinds of misperception, while the actual learning and representations in the mind/brain are relatively simple and general … Blevins' theory does not propose strict formal rules and algorithms to process and learn sound system, but rather a number of mechanisms, heuristics and ways of looking at linguistic phenomena that can be adapted to particular instances … I consider this to be a practical perspective … all in all, I found this book easier to read and less formal than most books on phonological theory … this book is well worth reading for a new perspective on phonology that conforms to the trend towards more data-driven models of language.' Journal of Linguistics
Table of ContentsPreface; Acknowledgements; Part I. Preliminaries: 1. What is evolutionary phonology? 2. Evolution in language and elsewhere; 3. Explanation in phonology: a brief history of ideas; Part II. Sound Patterns: 4. Laryngeal features; 5. Place features; 6. Other common sound patterns; 7. The evolution of geminates; 8. Some uncommon sound patterns; Part III. Implications: 9. Synchronic phonology; 10. Diachronic phonology; 11. Beyond phonology; References; Language index; Subject index.
