Article published in:
Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 12:2 (2022) ► pp. 167–193

The Neogrammarian hypothesis and pandemic irregularity [*] *

Take two

| University of Hawai’i University of Hawai’i
At least three types of sound change (prenasalization of obstruents, lenition of obstruents, conversion of labial consonants to the corresponding labiovelars) are widespread in the Austronesian language family as sporadic innovations. What marks these off as different from more familiar types of irregularity is their repeated occurrence across hundreds of related languages, a phenomenon that can conveniently be called “pandemic irregularity.” All attempts to find an explanation for why pandemic irregularities occur in terms of possibly unrecognized affixation, conditioning, borrowing, or unfinished processes, have proven futile. In particular, it is stressed that pandemic irregularity in sound change is fundamentally different from “lexical diffusion”, and deserves to be recognized in its own right as a process that works against the general application of the regularity hypothesis.
Keywords: sound change, the Neogrammarian hypothesis, recurrent irregularity, Austronesian languages
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Neogrammarian regularity hypothesis
    • 2.1Regularity and exceptions in sound change
  • 3.The evidence for pandemic irregularity
    • 3.1Dempwolff’s “facultative nasal”
      • 3.1.1The facultative nasal as a product of affixation
      • 3.1.2The facultative nasal as a product of conditioned sound change
      • 3.1.3The facultative nasal as a product of borrowing
      • 3.1.4The facultative nasal as a sound change in progress
      • 3.1.5Doubleting
      • 3.1.6Sporadic denasalization
    • 3.2The tripartite split of obstruents in Oceanic languages
    • 3.3Convergence vs. inheritance
    • 3.4Sporadic labiovelars in Oceanic languages
  • 4.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 03 February 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.20027.blu
References
Adelaar, K. Alexander
1992 Proto-Malayic: The Reconstruction of its Morphology and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics (PL C-119).Google Scholar
Bender, Byron W., Ward H. Goodenough, Frederick H. Jackson, Jeffrey C. Marck, Kenneth L. Rehg, Ho-min Sohn, Stephen Trussel & Judith W. Wang
2003 Proto-Micronesian Reconstructions – 1. Oceanic Linguistics 421.1–110.Google Scholar
Blust, Robert
1981 Some remarks on labiovelar correspondences in Oceanic languages. Studies in Pacific Languages and Cultures in Honour of Bruce Biggs ed. by Jim Hollyman & Andrew Pawley, 229–253. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand.Google Scholar
1996 The Neogrammarian hypothesis and pandemic irregularity. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change ed. by Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, 135–156. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2013 [2009] The Austronesian Languages. 2nd ed. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics Open Access Monographs. https://​openresearch​-repository​.anu​.edu​.au​/bitstream​/1885​/10191​/6​/Blust​-2013​-AustronesianLanguages​.pdf
2020 The resurrection of Proto-Philippines. Oceanic Linguistics 581.153–256. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Blust, Robert, and Stephen Trussel
2020. Austronesian Comparative Dictionary. (https://​trussel2​.com​/acd/).
Dempwolff, Otto
1920 Die Lautentsprechungen der indonesischen Lippenlaute in einigen anderen austronesischen Südseesprachen. Habilitationsschrift at the University of Hamburg. Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen Sprachen, Supplement 2. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar
1934–1938 31 vols. Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes. Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen, Supplement 1. Induktiver Aufbau einer indonesischen Ursprache (1934), Supplement 2. Deduktive Anwendung des Urindonesischen auf austronesische Einzelsprachen (1937), Supplement 3. Austronesisches Wörterverzeichnis (1938) Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar
1938 Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wortschatzes, Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen Sprachen. Supplement 3. Austronesisches Wörterverzeichnis. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar
Durie, Mark & Malcolm Ross
(eds.) 1996 The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dyen, Isidore
1963 Why phonetic change is regular. Language 391.631–637. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gensler, Orin
1999 Review of Durie & Ross. Journal of Linguistics 351.608–617.Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles F.
1965 Sound change. Language 411.185–215. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hoenigswald, Henry
1950 The principal step in comparative grammar. Language 261. 357–364. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1999 Review of Durie & Ross. Diachronica 161.165–176. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, John
2002 The Proto-Oceanic labiovelars: Some new observations. Oceanic Linguistics 411.310–362. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nichols, Johanna
1996 The comparative method as heuristic. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change ed. by Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, 39–71. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reid, Lawrence A.
1982 The demise of Proto-Philippines. Papers from the Third International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics ed. by Amran Halim, Lois Carrington & S. A. Wurm, vol. 21.201–216. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics (PL C-75).Google Scholar
Ross, Malcolm
1988 Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics (PL C-98).Google Scholar
1990 Proto-Oceanic consonant grade and Milke’s *nj. VICAL-I: Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics ed. by Ray Harlow & Robin Hooper, Part II1, 433–495. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand.Google Scholar
Ross, Malcolm, Andrew Pawley, and Meredith Osmond
(eds.) 2011 The Lexicon of Proto Oceanic, The Culture and Environment of Ancestral Oceanic Society, 4: Animals. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics (PL 621).Google Scholar
Schuchardt, Hugo
1885 Über die Lautgesetze: gegen die Junggrammatiker. Berlin: Oppenheim.Google Scholar
Wang, William S-Y.
1969 Competing changes as a cause of residue. Language 451.9–25. CrossrefGoogle Scholar