I don't know if there's an actual name for this phenomenon in historical linguistics, so hopefully this will do if there isn't.
Consider the reflexes of Germanic /ai/ and /au/ in English and Dutch. Dutch straightforwardly has /e/ and /o/ respectively, but English, after some unusual sound-changes, has /o/ and /e/ (later /i/). For example, Germanic stainaz and straumaz are steen and stroom in Dutch, but stone and stream in English.
The phenomenon may be summarised as /X Y/ > /W Z/ and /Z W/. So:
1. Is there already a name for this?
2. Can anyone think of any other examples with the appropriate historical details?
3. Have you ever done this deliberately in one or more of your conlangs for fun?
Cognate crossovers
Cognate crossovers
Zompist's Markov generator wrote:it was labelled" orange marmalade," but that is unutterably hideous.
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Re: Cognate crossovers
PIE ā, ō > PSl. ā, PGmc. ō
PIE a, o > PSl. o, PGmc. a
No, wait, that'd be XY > ZZ.
No, wait...
PIE a, o > PSl. o, PGmc. a
That's what happens when you are transforming a mammal into a bird.The phenomenon may be summarised as /X Y/ > /W Z/ and /Z W/. So:
No, wait, that'd be XY > ZZ.
No, wait...
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Re: Cognate crossovers
Nancy Blackett wrote:I don't know if there's an actual name for this phenomenon in historical linguistics, so hopefully this will do if there isn't.
Consider the reflexes of Germanic /ai/ and /au/ in English and Dutch. Dutch straightforwardly has /e/ and /o/ respectively, but English, after some unusual sound-changes, has /o/ and /e/ (later /i/). For example, Germanic stainaz and straumaz are steen and stroom in Dutch, but stone and stream in English.
The phenomenon may be summarised as /X Y/ > /W Z/ and /Z W/. So:
1. Is there already a name for this?
2. Can anyone think of any other examples with the appropriate historical details?
3. Have you ever done this deliberately in one or more of your conlangs for fun?
Well, as for question 1, it's called "English finally getting it as the LORD intended."
Isn't it? You're the expert.
Re: Cognate crossovers
The Western dialects of Armenian often have swapped voicing in consonants with respect to the Eastern (conservative) dialects. e.g. Hakob ~ Hagop "Jacob", vardapet ~ vartabed "doctor" (in some senses). Most of the other pairs I can think of are names, but the change affected everything in the language that uses any of the 10 or so consonants that were affected. It's the best example of a "swap" in phonology that I know. However, the voiceless aspirates were not affected. The actual shift was:
b d dz dž g> pʰ tʰ tsʰ tšʰ kʰ
p t ts tš k > b d dz dž g
(pʰ tʰ tsʰ tšʰ kʰ stayed as is)
b d dz dž g> pʰ tʰ tsʰ tšʰ kʰ
p t ts tš k > b d dz dž g
(pʰ tʰ tsʰ tšʰ kʰ stayed as is)
Last edited by Soap on Mon May 02, 2011 2:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:
Re: Cognate crossovers
Eastern Catalan has the interesting change of /e/ > /ə/. In Balearic dialects, /ə/ remains in all positions, but in Central Catalan it becomes /ɛ/ in tonic syllables. Meanwhile, VL tonic /ɛ/ became /e/ everywhere. So if I need to remember the quality of a Catalan stressed e, I think of what it would be in VL and then use the opposite.
There's also the case of Limousin, which reversed /s/ and /ʃ. vis-à-vis all other Occitan varieties, but I don't know the details of this.
There's also the case of Limousin, which reversed /s/ and /ʃ. vis-à-vis all other Occitan varieties, but I don't know the details of this.
Re: Cognate crossovers
I once read about a Classic Greek dialect that had vowel length swapped compared to Attic Greek.
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Re: Cognate crossovers
In my romlang Roman Germanech, I have Latin short /i/ becoming /e/ and Latin short /e/ becoming /i/ in what could be called a "leap-frogging" change (accordingly, /u/ and /o/ as well as their umlauted counterparts /y/ and /ø/). This fell out from the combination of a widespread change in Western Romance with one from the history of German:
(1) /e/ > /E/ (Vulgar Latin)
(2) /i/ > /e/ (dito)
(3) /E/ > /ie/ (happened in several Romance languages)
(4) /ie/ > /i/ (happened in German)
There you are. Long /i:/ has become /ai/, and long /e:/ has become /e/.
(1) /e/ > /E/ (Vulgar Latin)
(2) /i/ > /e/ (dito)
(3) /E/ > /ie/ (happened in several Romance languages)
(4) /ie/ > /i/ (happened in German)
There you are. Long /i:/ has become /ai/, and long /e:/ has become /e/.
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ESTAR-3SG:P human-OBJ only human-OBJ true-OBJ REL-LOC play-3SG:A
Tha cvastam émi cvastam santham amal phelsa. -- Friedrich Schiller
ESTAR-3SG:P human-OBJ only human-OBJ true-OBJ REL-LOC play-3SG:A
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Re: Cognate crossovers
Also, Lithuanian has flipped rising and falling tones, I have read.Guitarplayer wrote:I once read about a Classic Greek dialect that had vowel length swapped compared to Attic Greek.
...brought to you by the Weeping Elf
Tha cvastam émi cvastam santham amal phelsa. -- Friedrich Schiller
ESTAR-3SG:P human-OBJ only human-OBJ true-OBJ REL-LOC play-3SG:A
Tha cvastam émi cvastam santham amal phelsa. -- Friedrich Schiller
ESTAR-3SG:P human-OBJ only human-OBJ true-OBJ REL-LOC play-3SG:A
Re: Cognate crossovers
I imagine an example can probably be found in the Indo-European plosive system somewhere, especially if we look all the way to modern reflexes. For example, PIE /p b b_h/ > Latin /p b f/ but Gothic /f p b/.
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Re: Cognate crossovers
And there you go: PIE /t/, /d/ > Proto-Germanic /T/~/D/, /t/ > Low West Germanic /d/, /t/, but remained /t/, /d/ in LatinZhen Lin wrote:I imagine an example can probably be found in the Indo-European plosive system somewhere, especially if we look all the way to modern reflexes. For example, PIE /p b b_h/ > Latin /p b f/ but Gothic /f p b/.
One imagines this sort of thing happens all the damn time with chain shifts.