Consonant Change in English Worldwide

Applying insights from variationist linguistics to historical change mechanisms that have affected the consonantal system of English, Daniel Schreier reports findings from a historical corpus-based study on the reduction of particular consonant clusters and compares them with similar processes in synchronic varieties, thus defining consonantal change as a phenomenon involving psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, phonological theory and contact linguistics. Moreover, he weighs the impact of external and internal effects on causation, examining data from a total of fifteen varieties with different time depths and social histories.

Daniel Schreier is currently Assistant Professor for English Historical Linguistics, University of Berne, Switzerland.

List of Tables

ix

List of Figures

xi

Acknowledgements

xiii

List of Abbreviations

xv

1 Introduction

1

(15)

1.1 Phonotactic language change: an interdisciplinary approach

5

(7)

1.2 Scope, outline and structure

12

(4)

2 Consonant Clusters: General Observations

16

(40)

2.1 Consonant clusters and syllable structure

18

(21)

2.2 Change and adaptation mechanisms

39

(6)

2.3 Causes and motivations: a first approach

45

(9)

2.4 Conclusion

54

(2)

3 Initial Cluster Reduction in English

56

(70)

3.1 Historical loss of initial clusters in British English

58

(24)

3.2 /hw-/>/w-/ in post-colonial English, with special reference to New Zealand

82

(31)

3.3 Initial cluster loss in language contact conditions

113

(9)

3.4 Conclusion

122

(4)

4 Final Cluster Reduction in English

126

(72)

4.1 A typology of consonant cluster reduction in English, revisited

129

(8)

4.2 Four case studies: final CCR in New Zealand and South Atlantic English

137

(21)

4.3 Final CCR in English around the world: a comparative analysis

158

(38)

4.4 Word-final CCR in English: summary

196

(2)

5 Theoretical Implications

198

(23)

5.1 Variation and differentiation

198

(14)

5.2 Implications for language change

212

(5)

5.3 A psycholinguistic explanation?

217

(4)

6 Summary and Conclusion

221

(5)

Notes

226

(4)

References

230

(14)

Index

244

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Consonant Change in English Worldwide Synchrony Meets Diachrony

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials