Article published In:
DiachronicaVol. 23:1 (2006) ► pp.61–104
The diachrony and synchrony of vowel quantity in English and Dutch
This investigation of Open Syllable Lengthening in Middle English and Middle Dutch treats the changes as the result of listener-based reinterpretations of coarticulatory effects on vowel duration. OSL in English is a result of compensatory lengthening, which is analyzed as a hypocorrection. OSL in Middle Dutch involves a hypercorrection in which the duration of etymologically long vowels is reinterpreted as a purely phonetic correlate of stress in open syllables. The different phonological bases for OSL provide a diachronic explanation for the retention of contrastive vowel quantity in Modern English and its absence in Modern Dutch.
Cited by
Cited by 6 other publications
de Vaan, Michiel
Leppänen, Ville & Tommi Alho
2018. On The Mergers Of Latin Close‐Mid Vowels. Transactions of the Philological Society 116:3 ► pp. 460 ff. 
MINKOVA, DONKA & MICHAEL LEFKOWITZ
2021. Middle English Open Syllable Lengthening (MEOSL) or Middle English Compensatory Lengthening (MECL)?. English Language and Linguistics 25:1 ► pp. 155 ff.
MOKROWIECKI, TOMASZ
2015. Acute accents as graphic markers of vowel quantity in two Late Old English manuscripts. English Language and Linguistics 19:3 ► pp. 407 ff.
Page, B. Richard
2020. Quantity in Germanic Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics, ► pp. 97 ff.
Seiler, Guido
2009. Sound change or analogy? Monosyllabic lengthening in German and some of its consequences. The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 12:3 ► pp. 229 ff.
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