This paper offers a contribution to laboratory phonology, extending experimental methods to the investigation of a cross-linguistic historical problem. The issue in question is the recurrent and unidirectional series of sound changes from /p/ > /f/ > /h/. A large sample of languages was surveyed, which revealed no evidence for direct changes from /p/ > /h/ (contrary to popular claims in the literature). Instead, an intervening /f/ stage appears mandatory. /p/ > /f/ changes are widely assumed to be articulatorily-motivated lenitions. By contrast, /f/ > /h/ changes have received little attention. The survey indicates that this change tends to be motivated in the proximity of /u/. A perceptual experiment was carried out to investigate this pattern, which shows that the change may be initiated due to the acoustic similarity of [fu] and [hu] sequences. Some implications of these findings for phonological theory are then briefly outlined.
ABRAHAM, R.C. (1940). An introduction to spoken Hausa. Nigeria: Crown Agents for the Colonies.
2.
ANDERSON, S.R. (1985). Phonology in the twentieth century.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3.
BALDI, P. (1987). Indo-European languages. In B. Comrie (ed.), The world's major languages (pp. 31–67). London: Croom Helm.
4.
BEHRENS, S., & BLUMSTEIN, S.E. (1988). On the role of the amplitude of the fricative noise in the perception of place of articulation in voiceless fricative consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 84, 861–867.
5.
BELL, A. (1978). Language samples. In J.H. Greenberg, C. A Ferguson, & E. A. Moravcsik (Eds.), Universals of human language: Vol I. Method and theory (pp. 123–156). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
6.
BELL, H. (1971). The phonology of Nobiin Nubian. African Language Review, 9, 115–139.
7.
BERGSLAND, K. (1956). Some problems of Aleut phonology. In M. Halle, H.G. Lunt, & H. MacLean (eds.), For Roman Jakobson (pp. 38–43). The Hague: Mouton.
8.
BHALDRAITHE, T. de (1945). The Irish of Cois Fhairrge, County Galway.Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
9.
BOAS, F., & HAEBERLIN, H. (1927). Sound shifts in Salishan dialects. International Journal of American Linguistics, 4, 117–136.
CASHMORE, C. (1969). Some Proto-Eastern Oceanic reconstructions with reflexes in South East Solomon Islands languages. Oceanic Linguistics, 8, 1–25.
12.
CATFORD, J.C. (1977). Fundamental problems in phonetics.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
13.
CHOMSKY, N., & HALLE, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English.New York: Harper & Row.
14.
CODRINGTON, R.H. (1885). The Melanesian languages.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
15.
COLEMAN, R.G. G. (1987). Latin and the Italic languages. In B. Comrie (ed.), The world's major languages (pp. 180–202). London: Croom Helm.
16.
CONNELL, B. (1991). Phonetic aspects of the Lower Cross languages and their implications for sound change. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Edinburgh.
17.
CONNELL, B., & ARVANITI, A. (Eds.). (1995). Phonology and phonetic evidence.Papers in Laboratory Phonology IV.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
18.
COWAN, H.K. J. (1965). Grammar of the Sentani language.The Hague: Nijhoff.
19.
DIXON, R.M. W. (1980). The languages of Australia.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
20.
DOCHERTY, G.J., & LADD, D.R. (eds.). (1992). Papers in laboratory phonology II: gesture, segment, prosody.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
21.
DUTTON, T.E. (1969). The peopling of Central Papua. (Pacific Linguistics Series B, 9.)Canberra: Australian National University.
22.
ELMENDORF, W.W. (1962). Relations of Oregon Salish as evidenced in numerical stems. Anthropological Linguistics, 4, 1–12.
23.
ESSEN, O. von (1943–44). Archiv f. vgl. Phonetik, 7, 58ff.
24.
FERGUSON, C.A. (1976). The Ethiopian language area. In M. L. Bender (ed.), Language in Ethiopia (pp. 63–76). London: Oxford University Press.
25.
FOULKES, P. (1993). Theoretical implications of the /p/ > /f/ > /h/ change. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Cambridge, U.K.
26.
FRANKLIN, K.J. (1968). The dialects of Kewa. (Pacific Linguistics Series B, 10.)Canberra: Australian National University.
FRANTZ, C.I., & FRANTZ, M.E. (1966). Gadsup phoneme and toneme units. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics, 5, 1–11.
29.
GABELENTZ, G. von der (1978). Sound change. In P. Baldi & R. N. Werth (eds.) Readings in historical phonology (pp. 23–32). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
30.
GAMKRELIDZE, T.V. (1975). On the correlation of stops and fricatives in a phonological system. Lingua, 35, 231–261.
31.
GREEN, J.N. (1987). Spanish. In B. Comrie (ed.), The world's major languages (pp. 236–259). London: Croom Helm.
32.
GREENBERG, J.H. (1941). Some problems in Hausa phonology. Language, 17, 316–324.
33.
GUTHRIE, M. (1967). Comparative Bantu. (4 vols.). Farnborough: Gregg Press.
34.
HAAS, M.R. (1945). Dialects of the Muskogee language. International Journal of American Linguistics, 11, 69–74.
35.
HALE, K. (1958). Internal diversity in Uto-Aztecan. International Journal of American Linguistics, 24, 101–108.
36.
HAMADA, A. (1970). Chōsen Shiryō Ni Yoru Nihon-go Kenkyū. Iwanami-shoten.
37.
HARRIS, J. (1994). English sound structure.Oxford: Blackwell.
38.
HARRIS, K.S. (1958). Cues for the discrimination of American English fricatives in spoken syllables. Language and Speech, 1, 1–7.
39.
HASSELBRINK, G. (1965). Alternative analyses of the phonemic system in Central South Lappish. (Indiana University Ural and Altaic Series, 49). The Hague: Mouton.
40.
HAWKINS, J.A. (1987). Germanic languages. In B. Comrie (ed.) The world's major languages (pp. 68–76). London: Croom Helm.
41.
JOHNSON, K. (1997). Acoustic and auditory phonetics.Oxford: Blackwell.
42.
JOHNSTON, H.H. (1919–22). A comparative study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu languages. (Vols. 1–2). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
43.
KARLGREN, B. (1915–26). Etudes sur la phonologie Chinoise.Gothenburg: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag.
44.
KAWASAKI, H. (1982). An acoustical basis for universal constraints on sound sequences. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.
45.
KEATING, P.A. (ed.). (1994). Phonological structure and phonetic form. Papers in Laboratory Phonology III.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
46.
KINGSTON, J., & BECKMAN, M.E. (eds.). (1990). Papers in laboratory phonology I---between the grammar and physics of speech.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
47.
KRISHNAMURTI, B. (1961). Telugu verbal bases---comparative and descriptive analysis.Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Publications in Linguistics, 24.
48.
KURYLOWICZ, J. (1964). On the methods of internal reconstruction. In H. G. Lunt (ed.), Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference of Linguists (pp. 9–31). The Hague: Mouton.
49.
LABOV, W. (1978). On the use of the present to explain the past. In P. Baldi & R. N. Werth (eds.), Readings in Historical Phonology (pp. 275–312). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
50.
LADEFOGED, P., & MADDIESON, I. (1996). The sounds of the world's languages.Oxford: Blackwell.
51.
LASS, R. (1984). Phonology: An introduction to basic concepts.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
52.
LEMLE, M. (1971). Internal classification of the Tupi-Guarani linguistic family. In D. Bendor-Samuel (ed.), Tupi studies I (pp. 107–121). University of Oklahoma, Norman: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
53.
MADDIESON, I. (1984). Patterns of sounds.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
54.
MANN, S.E. (1963). Armenian and Indo-European (historical phonology). London: Luzac & Co.
55.
MANN, V.A., & REPP, B.H. (1980). Influence of vocalic context on perception of the [f]-[s] distinction. Perception and Psychophysics, 28, 213–228.
56.
MARSH, G., & SWADESH, M. (1951). Eskimo-Aleut correspondences. International Journal of American Linguistics, 17, 209–217.
57.
MARTIN, S.E. (1987). The Japanese language through time.New Haven: Yale University Press.
58.
MEILLET, A. (1967). The comparative method in historical linguistics.Paris: Libraire Honoré Champion.
59.
MERLINGEN, W. (1977). Artikulation und Phonematik des H.Vienna: VWGÖ.
60.
MILROY, J. (1992). Linguistic variation and change.Oxford: Blackwell.
61.
NARASIMHIA, A.N. (1936). The history of /p/ in Kanarese. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, 8, 673–680.
62.
NEWMAN, P. (1971). Hausa and Chadic: A reply. African Language Studies, 12, 169–172.
63.
NEWMAN, P. (1987). Hausa and the Chadic languages. In B. Comrie (ed.), The world's major languages (pp. 705–723). London: Croom Helm.
64.
NICOLAÏ, R. (1981). Les dialectes du Songhay.Paris: SELAF.
65.
OHALA, J.J. (1974). Experimental historical phonology. In J. M. Anderson & C. Jones (eds.), Historical linguistics II. Theory and description in phonology.Amsterdam: North-Holland. 353–389.
66.
OHALA, J.J. (1983). The origin of sound patterns in vocal tract constraints. In P. F. MacNeilage (ed.), The production of speech (pp. 189–216). New York: Springer-Verlag.
67.
OHALA, J.J. (1989). Sound change is drawn from a pool of synchronic variation. In L. Breivik & H. Jahr (eds.), Language change: contributions to the study of its causes (pp. 173–198). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
68.
OHALA, J.J., & LORENTZ, J. (1977). The story of [w]: an exercise in the phonetic explanation for sound patterns, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 3, 577–599.
69.
PAGLIUCA, W., & MOWREY, R. (1987). Articulatory evolution. In A.G. Ramat, O. Carruba & G. Bernini (Eds.), Papers from the 7th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (pp. 459–472). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
70.
PAYNE, J.R. (1987). Iranian languages. In B. Comrie (ed.), The world's major languages (pp. 514–522). London: Croom Helm.
71.
PRASSE, K.G. (1972). Manuel de grammaire TouarÈgue.Copenhagen: Editions de l'Université de Copenhague.
72.
ROOD, D.S. (1975). The implications of Wichita phonology. Language, 51, 315–337.
TRYON, D.T. (1970). Conversational Tahitian.Canberra: Australian National University Press.
82.
TUCKER, A.N. (1932). Some little-known dialects of SePedi. Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen, 35, 133–142.
83.
UPADHYAYA, U.P. (1976). A comparative study of Kannada dialects.University of Mysore: Prasaranga.
84.
VINCENT, N. (1987). Italian. In B. Comrie (ed.), The world's major languages (pp. 270–302). London: Croom Helm.
85.
WENCK, G. (1954–55). Japanische Phonetik. 4 Vols. Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
86.
YAEGER-DROR, M. (1994). Phonetic evidence for sound change in Quebec French. In P. A. Keating (ed.), Phonological structure and phonetic form. Papers in laboratory phonology III (pp. 267–292). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
87.
ZYHLARZ, E. (1949). Die Lautverschiebungen des Nubischen. Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen, 35, 1–20; 128–145; 280–313.
