Primary split revisited
Robert A. Blust | University of Hawai’i at Manoa
Textbook treatments generally state that primary split, or split-merger leads to positional neutralization, but has no effect on phoneme inventory. However, if the phonemes affected by a primary split have a defective distribution at the time of the change the result may be loss of contrast, or inventory reduction. This potential is illustrated with artificial data, but involves no assumptions that are contrary to common types of sound change.
Keywords: sound change, split-merger, neutralization, phoneme inventory, phonemic redistribution, defective distribution, reductive primary split
Published online: 08 June 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.29.2.01blu
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.29.2.01blu
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Cardoso, Amanda, James Crippen & Gloria Mellesmoen
2022. Cross-dialectal synchronic variation of a diachronic conditioned merger in Tlingit.
Linguistics Vanguard 8:s5 ► pp. 519 ff. 
de Carvalho, Fernando O.
2015. The historical phonology of Mawé glides.
Folia Linguistica 36:1
de Carvalho, Fernando O.
2017. Fricative Debuccalization and Primary Split in Terena (Arawak) Historical Phonology.
International Journal of American Linguistics 83:3 ► pp. 509 ff.
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