Re: The monumental stupidity of PIE theorists further illustrated

In article <_zE9k.15727$IK1.10715@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"John Atkinson" <johnacko@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Nathan Sanders" <nsanders@xxxxxxxxxxxx> ...

The best way to think of how contrast preservation affects sound
change is to look at what happens when a contrast is relatively
difficult to perceive/make. If a sound change is going to occur, one
of two things will happen: the contrast will be given up on resulting
in a merger, or the contrast will be enhanced by making one or both of
the contrasting units more distinct. But either possibility can and
does occur, and across languages, even within languages at different
points in time, we see the same contrast being handled differently,
sometimes merging, sometimes being enhanced (and often, just being
left alone).

Yes. But the question remains unanswered -- why did they go one way
rather than the other? Which is a bit unsatisfactory. Though of course
unsatisfactorinesses like this abound in historical linguistics. Are
languages chaotic systems? (In the sense that tiny differences typically
get amplified -- the amazonian butterfly effect.)

That is how I think of it. It's just random. When you have a given
linguistic state, there are multiple (but limited) natural paths a
language could take from that point on. Some language learners in
that state will settle on one path, others will settle on another.
But the "choices" will be essentially random. Many of these will be
leveled out by contact with other speakers who followed a different
path, others will be reinforced by speakers who followed the same path.

Iterate this generation after generation (which children adopting the
path their parents followed, perhaps with their own innovations!), and
eventually, one path or another will dominate, and someday completely
take over.

The randomness very likely could apply within a given speaker instead.
That is, a child doesn't strictly follow a single path. Rather, he
uses a speech pattern that follows one path part of the time, but
different speech patterns at other times. The overall effect will be
the same, however.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams College
http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/
.

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