Unpacking (linguistics)
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Sidebar". In historical linguistics and language contact, unpacking is the separation of the features of a segment into distinct segments.
Perhaps the most common example of unpacking is the separation of nasal vowels into vowel plus nasal consonant when borrowed into languages that do not have nasal vowels. This can be seen in English borrowings of French and Portuguese words, such as monsoon Script error: No such module "IPA". from Portuguese Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "IPA"., but occurs widely, as in Lingala Script error: No such module "IPA". from French Script error: No such module "IPA". "balance". Here the nasality of the vowel is separated out as a nasal consonant. If this did not happen, the nasality would be lost.
Unpacking occurs not just in borrowings, but within a language over time. For example, Armenian changed the Proto-Indo European syllabic resonants *m̥, *n̥, *r̥, and *l̥ into am, an, ar, and al, keeping the syllabic nature of the sound while preserving the consonant value. Thus, the privative prefix *n̥- has changed into Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "lang"., and the word *mr̥tos has become Script error: No such module "Lang". Script error: No such module "lang"..
See also
- Fusion, the opposite of unpacking
- Vowel breaking
References
- Crowley, Terry. (1997) An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press. Template:ISBN