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Chapter  9
Unpredictable
Processes
 Alternation  again
• Like  all  the  other  rules  in  the  book,  those  in  
Chapter  9  are  concerned  with  alternation
• Each  rule  describes  an  alternation  between  two  
sounds
• Knowing  the  rules  will  allow  a  person  to  
recognize  the  alternation
• These  rules  as  less  general  than  the  rules  
described  in  other  chapters
• Still,  it  is  useful  to  know  the  rules  so  as  to  be  able  
to  recognize  the  alternation
 Predictiveness
• Generality  is  related  to  predictiveness
• A  generalization  or  observation  that  applies  
very  broadly  is  highly  predictive
• The  more  predictive  the  generalization  is,  the  
more  useful  it  is  to  know  it
• From  the  learner’s  point  of  view,  it  is  less  
worth  while  to  familiarize  oneself  with  a  rule  
that  is  not  reliable  or  predictive
 Metathesis  
• The  word  <metathesis>  is  Greek  in  origin
• It  has  the  following  analysis:
• Meta-­‐the-­‐s-­‐is
meta-­‐the            -­‐s-­‐ is
‘after    -­‐place-­‐<s>-­‐ process’
‘the  process  of  placing  after’
• Metathesis  is  a  technical  word  that  designates  any  
process  in  which  adjacent  sounds  switch  places
• Metathesis  is  quite  dramatic  and  is  found  in  many  
languages
• The  usual  cause  of  metathesis  is  ease  of  pronunciation
 Examples  of  metathesis
• the  pronunciation  of  <nuclear>  as  [nukyular]  
• comfortable
• [astəriks]  for  <asterisk>
• [æks]  for  [æsk]  (attested  in  Old  English!)
– The  word  <dusk>  was  originally  [dəks]
• The  word  <thirteen>  was  originally  <thriteen>
• Spanish  milagro from  Latin  miraculum
• Hebrew  [hit-­‐labeʃ]  vs.  [his-­‐t-­‐akel]
 Rhotacism
• rho-­‐tac-­‐ism
• In  Latin,  an  [s]  became  [r]  between  vowel
– os ‘mouth’  but  or-­‐al-­‐is  ‘oral’
– ius ‘law’,  ius-­‐ti-­‐tia ‘justice’  but  de  iure ‘legal’
– rus ‘country’  but  rur-­‐al  ‘rural’
• In  English,  we  have  inherited  words  of  both  types
– Oral,  justice,  juridical,  rural,  rustic
• The  result  is  an  alternation  between  <r>  and  <s>
 Ablaut  
• A  word-­‐internal  vowel  change  that  has  a  grammatical  
function  is  called  ablaut
– The  word  is  borrowed  from  German  and  means  something  like  
‘sound  away’
– Its  meaning  is  more  like  ‘sound  difference’
• The  basic  idea  is  that  a  difference  in  the  vowel  signals  a  
difference  in  meaning
• Some  good  examples
– <man>  vs.  <men>
– <goose>  vs.  <geese>
– <mouse>  vs.  <mice>
– <run>  vs.  <ran>
– <sing>  vs.  <sang>
 English,  Latin  and  Greek  are  cousins
• Almost  all  of  the  languages  between  India  and  Iceland  
are  descended  from  one  common  ancestor,  which  we  
call  Indo-­‐European,  because  the  family  extends  from  
India  to  Europe  (and  now  beyond)
• Indo-­‐European  was  discovered  in  the  19th century
• Latin  and  Greek,  along  with  Sanskrit,  are  the  oldest  
descendants  of  Indo-­‐European  for  which  we  have  
written  records
• Although  they  are  closely  related,  Latin  and  Greek  each  
underwent  distinct  sound  changes after  they  separated  
from  Indo-­‐European
 Ablaut  in  Latin  and  Greek
• Ablaut  in  original  English  words  and  in  Latin  and  Greek  borrowings  
are  all  remnants  of  the  original  Indo-­‐European  language  that  is  the  
mother  of  all  of  them
• The  terms  used  in  the  book,  e-­‐grade,  o-­‐grade,  and  zero-­‐grade,  are  
all  traditional  terms  created  in  the  19th Century,  when  the  Indo-­‐
European  family  relation  was  discovered
• For  our  purposes,  all  that  really  matters  is  that  a  root  may  have  
variants  with  the  vowel  <e>,  the  vowel  <o>,  or  no  vowel  at  all
• If  you  see  three  forms  that  share  the  same  consonants  but  have  
different  vowels,  or  none,  they  may  be  variants  of  the  same  root  
related  by  ablaut
-­‐<generate>  <gonorrhea>  <pregnant>
<dentist>  <orthodontist>
<transfer>  <phosphor>
 Latin-­‐Greek  sound  correspondence
[s]  vs.  [h]
• Latin  [s]  is  the  same  sound  as  in  the  original  Indo-­‐
European  language
• Indo-­‐European  [s]  changed  to  [h]  in  Greek  at  the  
beginning  of  a  word
– Compare  the  change  of  [s]  to  [h]  at  the  end of  a  word  
in  Caribbean  dialects  of  Spanish
• The  result  is  a  correspondence  between  Latin  [s]  
and  Greek  [h]  at  the  beginning  of  a  word
– <semi>  vs.  <hemi>
– <sept>  vs.  <hepta>
– <sex>  vs.  <hex>
 Latin  and  Greek  alphabets
• We  have  borrowed  words  from  both  Latin  and  
Greek
• Latin  and  Greek  have  different  alphabets
– The  Greek  alphabet  was  borrowed  from  the  
Phoenicians
– There  were  various  versions  of  the  Greek  alphabet
– The  Western  Greek  alphabet  was  in  turn  borrowed  by  
the  Etruscans, who  lived  in  Italy  before  the  Romans  
and  whose  language  is  now  extinct
– The  Romans  borrowed  the  Etruscan  alphabet
• Phoenician  à Greek  à Phoenician  à Roman
 Latin-­‐Greek  letter  correspondence
[u]  vs.  [y]
• The  Greek  letter  upsilon  (υ)  stood  for  a  sound  similar  to  the  German  <ü>
– The  sound  is  a  front  rounded  vowel
• The  corresponding  sound  in  Latin  was  [u],  a  high  back  vowel  similar  to  the  
sound  of  the  English  letter  <u>  in  <rule>
• The  Greek  letter  upsilon  was  written  with  a  <y>  symbol  in  Greek  words  
borrowed  into  Latin
• Modern  Romance  languages  still  use  the  term  Greek  i (Spanish  i griega,  
French  i grec)  for  the  letter  <y>
• From  the  fact  that  all  these  alphabets  use  the  sound  [i]  to  refer  to  this  
letter,  we  can  tell  that  the  Romans  pronounced  [ü]  as  [i]
• The  upshot  of  all  of  this  is  a  correspondence  between  the  letter  <u>  in  
words  borrowed  from  Latin  and  <y>  in  words  borrowed  from  Greek  
through  Latin
• PHEW!
 Latin  and  Greek
f  vs.  ϕ
• Latin  and  Greek  used  different  letters  to  write  similar  sounds
• The  [f]  sound  did  not  exist  in  Greek
• Instead  Greek  had  an  aspirated  [ph],  the  same  sound  that  we  use  
for  [p]  in  English  at  the  beginning  of  a  word:  [phit]  vs [spit]
• Greek  used  the  letter  phi  (ϕ)  to  represent  this  sound
• Where  Greek  had  [ph],  Latin  had  [f]
• The  Romans  used  the  ancient  Etruscan  letter  for  [v],  which  was  
inherited  from  the  Phoenician  letter  for  [w],  to  write  the  [f]  sound
• When  the  Romans  borrowed  Greek  words,  they  used  the  letter  
sequence  <ph>  to  stand  for  the  Greek  letter  phi  (ϕ)
• Whenever  you  see  the  letter  sequence  <ph>  in  English,  it  is  a  Greek  
borrowing