Sound Change and Analogy

The two great engines of phonological and morphological history: regular, exceptionless sound change and the proportional restructuring of forms by analogy.

Definition

Sound change is the regular, systematic modification of a language's phonemes and their distribution over time, while analogy is the reshaping of words and paradigms on the model of other forms, typically to reduce irregularity.

Scope

This area examines how the sounds of a language change systematically over time, the Neogrammarian claim that sound change is regular and without exception, and the role of analogy in reshaping forms to fit existing patterns (often obscuring or reversing the effects of sound change). It also covers the lexical-diffusion alternative, which holds that some changes spread word by word rather than affecting all eligible words at once.

Sub-topics

• Analogical Change
• Lexical Diffusion
• Regular Sound Change
• The Neogrammarian Hypothesis

Core questions

• Is sound change regular and exceptionless, as the Neogrammarians claimed?
• How does analogy interact with, and sometimes counteract, the effects of sound change?
• What conditions a sound change, and how are conditioned and unconditioned changes distinguished?
• Does sound change spread simultaneously across the lexicon or gradually word by word (lexical diffusion)?
• How do regular correspondences arising from sound change underpin the comparative method?

Key theories

Neogrammarian regularity hypothesis

Sound change is mechanical and exceptionless within a given speech community and period; apparent exceptions are attributed either to analogy or to borrowing, a principle famously summarized as 'sound laws admit no exceptions.'

Lexical diffusion

Wang and colleagues argued that some sound changes spread gradually through the vocabulary, affecting words one at a time rather than all at once, challenging the strict Neogrammarian view of phonetic gradualness and lexical abruptness.

History

The regularity of sound change was the central tenet of the Neogrammarian school in 1870s Leipzig, given philosophical grounding in Hermann Paul's Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. Karl Verner's law famously resolved apparent exceptions to Grimm's Law, reinforcing confidence in regularity. The role of analogy in repairing irregularity was recognized in parallel, and in the later twentieth century lexical-diffusion research reopened debate over whether all sound change is in fact regular.

Debates

Neogrammarian regularity versus lexical diffusion

Whether sound change is always phonetically gradual and lexically abrupt (Neogrammarian) or can be lexically gradual (diffusing word by word) remains contested, with evidence cited for both modes in different changes.

Key figures

• Hermann Paul
• Karl Verner
• William S.-Y. Wang
• Karl Brugmann

Seminal works

• paul1880
• campbell2013
• hock1991

Frequently asked questions

If sound change is regular, why are there so many irregular words?

Many apparent irregularities result from later analogy, borrowing from other languages or dialects, or the overlapping of several distinct sound changes, rather than from exceptions to the original change itself.

What is an example of analogy overriding sound change?

English plurals once had varied forms, but analogy generalized the -s pattern, so a form like older 'kine' was replaced by the regular 'cows'; analogy reshapes forms toward dominant patterns.