Ling O: The Life Cycle of Phonological Processes: Principles and Case Studies (semi advanced)

The focus of this seminar is on the framework of the life cycle of phonological processes (Kiparsky 1995; Bermúdez-Otero 2015; Sen 2016; Iosad 2025). We will consider what theoretically informed analyses of diachronic patterns can teach us both about sound change and about synchronic grammar. The life cycle model provides an explicit architecture for the interaction of phonology with both phonetics and morphosyntax, and offers a formal account of the development of sound patterns over time within this architecture. In this seminar, we will consider the details of this architecture, the diagnostics that we can use to determine the architectural affiliation of sound patterns, and the predictions made by the model.  Empirically, the seminar focuses on phonological microvariation in both related and unrelated varieties. Close comparison of similar yet distinct phonological grammars provides an excellent field laboratory to examine the model’s predictions. We will consider two patterns of microvariation in Slavic (consonant palatalization and ‘mid vowel backing’) and the history stop preaspiration in Germanic, Celtic, and Uralic (where we will also have the opportunity to examine the potential role of language contact).  The seminar is open to anyone with a basic grasp of phonological analysis and an interest in sound change and historical phonology. No previous knowledge of the life cycle model is assumed, but interested students may wish to examine Bermúdez-Otero 2015 (https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/001679) and Sen 2016 (https://journals.ed.ac.uk/pihph/article/view/1691) in advance. Joe Salmons’ _Sound change_ (Edinburgh University Press, 2021), if you can get a hold of it, provides a broader introduction to many relevant issues.