Natural and unnatural sound patterns: A pocket field guide (original) (raw)

| Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Natural sound patterns are those grounded in physical properties of speech, while unnatural sound patterns arguably have no such physical basis. This study provides a brief history of the study of natural and unnatural sound patterns from antiquity forward. Definitions of natural and unnatural sound patterns are examined in a range of frameworks, and as applied to both synchronic and diachronic phonology. Examples of natural and unnatural sound patterns are provided, with attempts to move beyond linguistic intuitions by providing documentation from phonetic research, psycholinguistics, and laboratory phonology of the types of sound patterns grounded in physical properties of speech. A final issue discussed is the logic and empirical basis for encoding naturalness in synchronic grammars. Many common and recurrent sound patterns can be explained in terms of the way humans articulate and perceive speech, but phonetic explanation should be properly segregated from grammatical description and analysis.

Cited by (15)

Cited by 15 other publications

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Abdul Ghani, Mohammad Khairulanwar, Mohd Tarmizi Hasrah & Khairul Faiz Alimi

1. Dialek Hulu Kedah: Satu Pengelompokan Baharu. Jurnal Bahasa 24:1 ► pp. 1 ff.

Moreton, Elliott

1. 2. Phonological Abstractness In English Diphthong Raising. The Publication of the American Dialect Society 106:1 ► pp. 13 ff.

Birahimani, Ali H.

1. Some observations on aspiration and glottal fricatives in languages with a phonological contrast. Lingua 244 ► pp. 102895 ff.

BEGUŠ, GAŠPER

1. Post-nasal devoicing and the blurring process. Journal of Linguistics 55:4 ► pp. 689 ff.

Beguš, Gašper

1. Estimating historical probabilities of natural and unnatural processes. Phonology 37:4 ► pp. 515 ff.

Grossman, Eitan & Stéphane Polis

Blevins, Juliette

1. Areal Sound Patterns: From Perceptual Magnets to Stone Soup. In The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics, ► pp. 88 ff.

Spike, Matthew

1. The evolution of linguistic rules. Biology & Philosophy 32:6 ► pp. 887 ff.

Pellard, Thomas

1. Why /r/ is not a special, empty consonant in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 25:4 ► pp. 351 ff.

Stausland Johnsen, Sverre

1. A diachronic account of phonological unnaturalness. Phonology 29:3 ► pp. 505 ff.

Smith, Laura Catharine & Joseph C. Salmons

[no author supplied]

1. References. In Sounds of English Worldwide, ► pp. 354 ff.

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