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Article published In: Demystifying New Methods in Historical Linguistics
Edited by Erich Round
[Diachronica 41:3] 2024
► pp. 355–378

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Using acoustic-phonetic simulations to model historical sound change

ORCiD logo with link | University of Oxford
 | University of Oxford
ORCiD logo with link | University of Oxford
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Oxford.

Published online: 19 September 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.23019.hud
Abstract
We introduce a method for investigating sound change using audio proxies and interpolation between them. Using this method leads us to consider the possible trajectories of attested sound changes in acoustic space and allows us to run speech perception experiments with the interpolated sounds to examine the patterning of perceptual judgements. We discuss the implications for understanding rate and magnitude of sound changes and present the approach as one which might fruitfully be applied to a wide range of studies.
Résumé
Nous introduisons ici une méthode d’analyse des changements phonétiques qui utilise des substitutions sonores et des interpolations entre elles. Cette méthode nous fait examiner les trajectoires de changements phonétiques attestés dans un espace acoustique et nous permet de mener des expériences de perception de la parole à partir de ces sons interpolés afin d’examiner comment s’organise l’évaluation perceptive. La méthode proposée ici a des implications importantes concernant notre compréhension du taux et de l’ampleur des modifications phonétiques. Nous croyons qu’on peut la transposer à d’autres études.
Zusammenfassung
Wir stellen eine Methode zur Untersuchung von Lautverschiebungen vor, die Audio-Stellvertreter und Interpolationen zwischen diesen verwendet. Diese Methode wirft neues Licht auf mögliche Entwicklungsverläufe bezeugter Lautverschiebungen im akustischen Raum. Außerdem führen wir Experimente zur Sprachwahrnehmung mit den interpolierten Tönen durch, um die Struktur von Wahrnehmungsurteilen zu untersuchen. Wir diskutieren die Schlussfolgerungen, um die Geschwindigkeit und das Ausmaß von Lautverschiebungen zu begreifen. Wir gehen schließlich davon aus, dass diese Methode auf ein breites Spektrum von Studien angewendet werden kann.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Method for simulating sound change
    • 2.1Preliminaries
    • 2.2Speech morphing
  • 3.Example simulations
  • 4.Using audio continua in perception studies
    • 4.1Perception of Old English “breaking” of short vowels
    • 4.2Perception of a prosodic change: Simulation of left-to-right accent shift in Latin
  • 5.Calculating magnitudes and rates of sound changes
  • 6.What may we learn from sound change simulations?
    • 6.1The utility of calculating rates of change
    • 6.2Falsifiability
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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2025. Statistics in Phonetics. Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application 12:1 ► pp. 133 ff. DOI logo

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