Compensatory lengthening
Template:Short description Template:Sidebar with collapsible lists Template:IPA notice Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered by consonant loss may be considered an extreme form of fusion (Crowley 1997:46). Both types may arise from speakers' attempts to preserve a word's moraic count.[1]
Examples
English
An example from the history of English is the lengthening of vowels that happened when the voiceless velar fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". and its palatal allophone Script error: No such module "IPA".[2] were lost from the language. For example, in the Middle English of Chaucer's time the word night was phonemically Script error: No such module "IPA".; later the Script error: No such module "IPA". was lost, but the Script error: No such module "IPA". was lengthened to Script error: No such module "IPA". to compensate, causing the word to be pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA".. (Later the Script error: No such module "IPA". became Script error: No such module "IPA". by the Great Vowel Shift.)
Both the Germanic spirant law and the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law show vowel lengthening compensating for the loss of a nasal.
Non-rhotic forms of English have a lengthened vowel before a historical post-vocalic Script error: No such module "IPA".: in Scottish English, girl has a short Script error: No such module "IPA". followed by a light alveolar Script error: No such module "IPA"., as presumably it did in Middle English; in Southern British English, the Script error: No such module "IPA". has dropped out of the spoken form and the vowel has become a "long schwa" Script error: No such module "IPA"..
Classical Hebrew and Aramaic
Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Compensatory lengthening in Classical Hebrew and Aramaic is dependent on the class of consonant which follows the prefix (definite article in Hebrew and prefix waw-hahipukh in both languages).
E.g. (using the Hebrew definite article [hey with pataḥ plus dagesh in following consonant]):[3]
- Before <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ע and <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />א it is usually [hey with qametz].
- Before <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ח and <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ה it is usually [hey with pataḥ]. If it is pretonic it may be [hey with qametz].
- But when it is propretonic, whatever the guttural, it will usually be [hey with segol].
Ancient Greek
Compensatory lengthening is very common in Ancient Greek. It is particularly notable in forms where n or nt comes together with s, y (= ι̯), or i. The development of nt + y was perhaps thus:
- *mont-yă → Script error: No such module "lang". (palatalization ty → ts) → mõtsa (nasalization and vowel lengthening) → mõssa → mõsa (shortening ss → s) → mōsa (denasalization, retention of long vowel) = μοῦσα "muse"
Forms with this type of compensatory lengthening include the nominative singular and dative plural of many participles, adjectives, and nouns, the 3rd person plural ending for present and future active of all verbs, and the 3rd person singular present of athematic verbs:
- Script error: No such module "Lang". → Script error: No such module "Lang". "every, whole" (masculine nominative singular)[4]
- Script error: No such module "Lang". (feminine)
- Script error: No such module "Lang". (masculine/neuter dative plural)
- compare Script error: No such module "Lang". (m./n. genitive singular)
- Script error: No such module "Lang". participle "being" (feminine nominative singular)[5]
- Script error: No such module "Lang". "property, essence"
- compare Script error: No such module "Lang". (m./n. genitive singular, from participle ὤν "being",)
- Doric Script error: No such module "Lang". Attic/Ionic Script error: No such module "Lang". "they drive"
- Doric Script error: No such module "Lang". Attic/Ionic Script error: No such module "Lang". "they say"[6]
Indo-Aryan languages
In the evolution of the modern Indo-Aryan languages, there is a first stage in which consonant clusters with dissimilar consonants preceded by a short vowel undergo assimilation resulting in consonant clusters with similar consonants. In the second stage, the first consonant of the cluster or geminate was lost, which was accompanied by the lengthening of that vowel and sometimes additional nasalization. In Punjabi, only the first stage occurred, while most of the other modern Indo-Aryan languages underwent the second stage as well.
| Sanskrit | Punjabi | Hindi | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| हस्तः (hastaḥ) | ਹੱਥ (hatth) | हाथ (hāth) | hand |
| सप्त (sapta) | ਸੱਤ (satt) | सात (sāt) | seven |
| अष्ट (aṣṭa) | ਅੱਠ (aṭṭh) | आठ (āṭh) | eight |
| कर्तनम् (kartanaṃ) | ਕੱਟਨਾ (kaṭṭanā) | काटना (kāṭanā) | cutting |
| कर्म (karma) | ਕੰਮ (kamm) | काम (kām) | work |
| अर्धम् (ardhaṃ) | ਅੱਧਾ (addhā) | आधा (ādhā) | half |
| अद्य (adya) | ਅੱਜ (ajj) | आज (āj) | today |
| सर्पः (sarpaḥ) | ਸੱਪ (sapp) | साँप (sā(n)p) | snake |
| अक्षि (akṣi) | ਅੱਖ (akkh) | आँख (ā(n)kh) | eye |
| दुग्धम् (dugdhaṃ) | ਦੁੱਧ (duddh) | दूध (dūdh) | milk |
| पुत्रः (putraḥ) | ਪੁੱਤ (putt) | पूत (pūt) | son |
Maltese
The phonemes /Template:IPA link/, /Template:IPA link/, and /Template:IPA link/ were all vowelised in Maltese during a period spanning from the 18th to 20th centuries (except in word-final position where they were generally merged with /Template:IPA link/). In the spelling they are still represented, however, as għ for historic Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA"., and h for historic Script error: No such module "IPA".. These vowelised consonants lengthen adjacent short vowels, i.e. both preceding and following ones. For example, jagħmel ("he does"), formerly Script error: No such module "IPA"., now pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA"., and jitgħallem ("he learns"), formerly Script error: No such module "IPA"., now pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA"..[7]
Turkish
Script error: No such module "labelled list hatnote". The voiced velar fricative (Script error: No such module "IPA".), has undergone a sound change in Turkish by which the consonant was completely lost and compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel occurred. Even though the sound has been completely lost in standard Turkish, the sound change is not yet complete in some Turkish dialects and the corresponding velar fricative found in cognate words in the closely related Azerbaijani language and the Turkish-influenced Crimean Tatar language. The previous consonantal nature of the sound is evinced by earlier English loanwords from Turkish, such as yogurt/yoghurt (modern Turkish yoğurt, Script error: No such module "IPA".) and agha (modern Turkish ağa, Script error: No such module "IPA".).
The letter Ğ in Turkish alphabet and its counterpart Template:Angbr in Ottoman Turkish were once pronounced as Script error: No such module "IPA".. In modern Turkish, Ğ is used either as a silent letter indicating a syllable break or as a vowel lengthener for the preceding sound. It can also indicate the Script error: No such module "IPA". sound, if the preceding vowel is an Script error: No such module "IPA"..
See also
Notes
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Hoffer, Victoria. Biblical Hebrew: Supplement for Enhanced Comprehension. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005. Pg. 58. See also Garrett, Duane A., and Jason S. DeRouchie, A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Academic, 2009. Chapter 8.
- ↑ Smyth, par. 299: adjs. in nt.
- ↑ Smyth, par. 301 a and d: participles in nt.
- ↑ Smyth, par. 462 note: Doric athematic verb endings.
- ↑ Puech, Gilbert: Loss of emphatic and guttural consonants: From medieval to contemporary Maltese, in P. Paggio & A. Gatt (ed.): The languages of Malta, Language Science Press, Berlin, 2018.
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