This paper presents a classification of sound changes that can be seen as largely descriptive and... more This paper presents a classification of sound changes that can be seen as largely descriptive and "pre-theoretical". The most elementary categories of phonological change include the conditioned vs. unconditioned vs. sporadic distinction, the featural vs. segmental vs. prosodic distinction, phonologisation, morphologisation and lexicalisation as well as the contrast between sound change and persistent rule. The most general types of phonological change include assimilation, dissimilation, deletion, insertion, lenition, fortition and metathesis. In many cases it is argued that these seemingly self-explanatory terms conceal problematic issues and several layers of conflicting interpretations. In the third part of the paper the "aftermath" of sound changes (phonologisation, morphologisation and lexicalisation) as well as their genarally reductive character (Lüdtke's Law) is discussed.]
This paper investigates an apparent gap in the distribution of nasal + stop clusters, as well as ... more This paper investigates an apparent gap in the distribution of nasal + stop clusters, as well as certain aspects of the diachronic emergence of this gap, in Latin and Hungarian. The phenomenon investigated is the absence of a frequent consonant cluster ([nt] in Latin, [ŋk] in Hungarian) from a position at the end of verb stems. An important property of the missing consonant cluster in both languages is that it also functions as a person marker in the verbal inflection. It is argued that in Latin this gap is functionally motivated: it represents a case of syntagmatic pressure to avoid repeating the same sequence at too close an interval. In Hungarian, by contrast, the absence of [ŋk] from verb stem-final position is arguably unrelated to the identical phonological form of the 1Plural affix and is simply the result of accidents of diachronic development.
This paper investigates an apparent gap in the distribution of nasal + stop clusters, as well as ... more This paper investigates an apparent gap in the distribution of nasal + stop clusters, as well as certain aspects of the diachronic emergence of this gap, in Latin and Hungarian. The phenomenon investigated is the absence of a frequent consonant cluster ([nt] in Latin, [ŋk] in Hungarian) from a position at the end of verb stems. An important property of the missing consonant cluster in both languages is that it also functions as a person marker in the verbal inflection. It is argued that in Latin this gap is functionally motivated: it represents a case of syntagmatic pressure to avoid repeating the same sequence at too close an interval. In Hungarian, by contrast, the absence of [ŋk] from verb stem-final position is arguably unrelated to the identical phonological form of the 1Plural affix and is simply the result of accidents of diachronic development.
The paper investigates the relations between phonological form and information content within Lat... more The paper investigates the relations between phonological form and information content within Latin verbal inflection from two interrelated points of view. It looks at conditional entropy relations within the present paradigm to see how these relate to the textual frequency of the individual forms; and it seeks to answer the question to what extent the phonological form of stems and endings has the potential to lead to ambiguity in morphological marking. The latter issue is approached from the angle of the information content that word forms taken in themselves have about their morphological status. The broader question of potential ambiguity is broken down into two separate questions: one concerns stems where intra-paradigmatic ambiguity would be possible; the other concerns stems that include phonological material that could itself be interpreted as a morphological marker. The absence of potential ambiguity in the first sense, and its severe restriction in the second sense is inte...
This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the inflectional morphology of Latin in terms of th... more This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the inflectional morphology of Latin in terms of the patterns of allomorphy and the environments governing the distribution of allomorphs. It is demonstrated that all the attested allomorphic alternations can be described as functions of a vocalic scale, practically the sonority scale of vowels plus the undifferentiated class of consonants as the least sonorous extreme. The distribution of allomorphs along the vocalic scale crucially displays the property of contiguity, i.e., the subsections of the scale that trigger one particular allomorph are uninterrupted.
In this study the autor provides a survey on the interaction between English and the Latin, Frenc... more In this study the autor provides a survey on the interaction between English and the Latin, French, Italian, Spanish and Potuguese is analyses chronologically, with a special regard to the phonological modifications of loan-words.
The purpose of this paper is to present a recently published medieval Latin grammatical text, who... more The purpose of this paper is to present a recently published medieval Latin grammatical text, whose manuscript location is Bibliotheque National Lat. 16670 ff 19vb-21vb, and whose edition is Cser (2000). Texts of this type occur in great numbers and great variety in the last centuries of the Middle Ages. They summarise the rules of Latin syntax, interspersed occasionally with morphological information, in twenty-odd points. First we give short and typical sections of the text with some explanatory notes. Then we give an English translation of the selected sections, finally we discuss some aspects of the text as a whole.
In this paper we look at the demise of perfective reduplication in Latin and seek to answer the q... more In this paper we look at the demise of perfective reduplication in Latin and seek to answer the question why this process of erosion followed a phonologically rather strictly defined path. The small set of remaining reduplicated perfects is not a random collection of leftovers from the ruins of earlier morphology (as it is e.g. in Gothic) but displays remarkable phonological coherence in the documented period of the language. To understand why this should be so we look at the relevant phonotactic properties of simplex forms. It appears quite clearly that, for a variety of reasons, the number of stems beginning with p V p , t V t , k V k , b V b and s V s increased in the prehistory of Latin. The fact that this occurred and that voiceless stops figure more prominently in this configuration than other types of consonants may well have given rise to a new phonotactic pattern in which such stem-initial sequences were now legitimate (as opposed to Proto-Indo-European). It seems to be a plausible explanation th...
This paper examines the phonological entities called labiovelar stops in Classical Latin. The sta... more This paper examines the phonological entities called labiovelar stops in Classical Latin. The status of these entities involves the question whether they are segments (i.e., labiovelar stops) or clusters (i.e., sequences of a stop and a glide). The arguments for either position are discussed in detail and the literature is critically reviewed. The types of evidence that are taken into account are facts of frequency, phonetics, phonotactics, alternations and a specific assimilation process, and certain diachronic points are also considered. The conclusion is that the balance tilts slightly, but not definitively, towards the cluster interpretation.
The purpose of this paper is to present and explain the contrast between the purist tendencies (h... more The purpose of this paper is to present and explain the contrast between the purist tendencies (here narrowly defined as the replacement of loanwords with lexical material based on native resources) that existed in England and those that existed in the speech communities of smaller European languages. It is well known that in the case of English, purist tendencies were by and large unsuccessful (Barber 1976, Gorlach 1991:154 ff., Nevalainen 1999:358 ff.), but the opposite is true for smaller languages like Hungarian or Czech, as well as some of the major European languages, like German (Gardt 1999, Cser 2006). To understand why, two types of purist attitude have to be distinguished both typologically and historically (strictly in early modern and modern times). The first type is isolated and typically earlier, the second type (typically later) is intimately connected to institutional aspects of the speech community’s life, such as the expansion of schooling and universities and acad...
A latin nyelv történetének természetesen könyvtárnyi irodalma van, amely mögött sok évszázados fi... more A latin nyelv történetének természetesen könyvtárnyi irodalma van, amely mögött sok évszázados filológiai és szorosan vett nyelvészeti kutatómunka áll. A latin nyelv valamely korszakának, esetünkben a klasszikus latinnak a szinkrón fonológiai leírása azonban sokkal kevésbé feltárt terület, tudomásunk szerint Magyarországon a jelöltön kívül nem foglalkozott, és ma sem foglalkozik vele senki. Nem utolsó sorban azért nem, mert egy holt nyelv fonológiai leírása nem magától értetődően, könnyűszerrel elvégezhető feladat. A klasszikus latin különféle (célszerűen kiválasztott) jelenségeinek modern fonológiai elemzésére természetesen van példa a szakirodalomban, de a jelölt által önmaga elé tűzött átfogó feladatnak eddig senki nem látott neki komolyan.
This paper presents a classi"cation of sound changes that can be seen as largely descriptive and ... more This paper presents a classi"cation of sound changes that can be seen as largely descriptive and “pre÷theoretical”. The most elementary categories of phonological change include the conditioned vs. unconditioned vs. sporadic distinction, the featural vs. segmental vs. prosodic distinction, phonologisa-tion, morphologisation and lexicalisation as well as the contrast between sound change and persistent rule. The most general types of phonological change include assimilation, dissimilation, deletion, insertion, lenition, forti-tion and metathesis. In many cases it is argued that these seemingly self- explanatory terms conceal problematic issues and several layers of con.ict-ing interpretations. In the third part of the paper the “a/ermath” of sound changes (phonologisation, morphologisation and lexicalisation) as well as their generally reductive character (Lüdtke’s Law) is discussed.
This paper discusses a putative sound change in the early history of Latin and synchronic alterna... more This paper discusses a putative sound change in the early history of Latin and synchronic alternations apparently related to it. The lowering of short high vowels before the rhotic is problematic on several counts; so much so that serious doubt has been cast on its reality. On the other hand, due to widespread alternations in the morphophonology of Classical Latin it is reasonable to assume that such a lowering operated as a synchronic rule at that stage. A minor asymmetry in the relevant alternations of verbal affixes in infectum-based vs. perfectum-based formations presents an interesting problem to which I suggest two tentative explanations.
This paper presents a classification of sound changes that can be seen as largely descriptive and... more This paper presents a classification of sound changes that can be seen as largely descriptive and "pre-theoretical". The most elementary categories of phonological change include the conditioned vs. unconditioned vs. sporadic distinction, the featural vs. segmental vs. prosodic distinction, phonologisation, morphologisation and lexicalisation as well as the contrast between sound change and persistent rule. The most general types of phonological change include assimilation, dissimilation, deletion, insertion, lenition, fortition and metathesis. In many cases it is argued that these seemingly self-explanatory terms conceal problematic issues and several layers of conflicting interpretations. In the third part of the paper the "aftermath" of sound changes (phonologisation, morphologisation and lexicalisation) as well as their genarally reductive character (Lüdtke's Law) is discussed.]
This paper investigates an apparent gap in the distribution of nasal + stop clusters, as well as ... more This paper investigates an apparent gap in the distribution of nasal + stop clusters, as well as certain aspects of the diachronic emergence of this gap, in Latin and Hungarian. The phenomenon investigated is the absence of a frequent consonant cluster ([nt] in Latin, [ŋk] in Hungarian) from a position at the end of verb stems. An important property of the missing consonant cluster in both languages is that it also functions as a person marker in the verbal inflection. It is argued that in Latin this gap is functionally motivated: it represents a case of syntagmatic pressure to avoid repeating the same sequence at too close an interval. In Hungarian, by contrast, the absence of [ŋk] from verb stem-final position is arguably unrelated to the identical phonological form of the 1Plural affix and is simply the result of accidents of diachronic development.
This paper investigates an apparent gap in the distribution of nasal + stop clusters, as well as ... more This paper investigates an apparent gap in the distribution of nasal + stop clusters, as well as certain aspects of the diachronic emergence of this gap, in Latin and Hungarian. The phenomenon investigated is the absence of a frequent consonant cluster ([nt] in Latin, [ŋk] in Hungarian) from a position at the end of verb stems. An important property of the missing consonant cluster in both languages is that it also functions as a person marker in the verbal inflection. It is argued that in Latin this gap is functionally motivated: it represents a case of syntagmatic pressure to avoid repeating the same sequence at too close an interval. In Hungarian, by contrast, the absence of [ŋk] from verb stem-final position is arguably unrelated to the identical phonological form of the 1Plural affix and is simply the result of accidents of diachronic development.
The paper investigates the relations between phonological form and information content within Lat... more The paper investigates the relations between phonological form and information content within Latin verbal inflection from two interrelated points of view. It looks at conditional entropy relations within the present paradigm to see how these relate to the textual frequency of the individual forms; and it seeks to answer the question to what extent the phonological form of stems and endings has the potential to lead to ambiguity in morphological marking. The latter issue is approached from the angle of the information content that word forms taken in themselves have about their morphological status. The broader question of potential ambiguity is broken down into two separate questions: one concerns stems where intra-paradigmatic ambiguity would be possible; the other concerns stems that include phonological material that could itself be interpreted as a morphological marker. The absence of potential ambiguity in the first sense, and its severe restriction in the second sense is inte...
This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the inflectional morphology of Latin in terms of th... more This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the inflectional morphology of Latin in terms of the patterns of allomorphy and the environments governing the distribution of allomorphs. It is demonstrated that all the attested allomorphic alternations can be described as functions of a vocalic scale, practically the sonority scale of vowels plus the undifferentiated class of consonants as the least sonorous extreme. The distribution of allomorphs along the vocalic scale crucially displays the property of contiguity, i.e., the subsections of the scale that trigger one particular allomorph are uninterrupted.
In this study the autor provides a survey on the interaction between English and the Latin, Frenc... more In this study the autor provides a survey on the interaction between English and the Latin, French, Italian, Spanish and Potuguese is analyses chronologically, with a special regard to the phonological modifications of loan-words.
The purpose of this paper is to present a recently published medieval Latin grammatical text, who... more The purpose of this paper is to present a recently published medieval Latin grammatical text, whose manuscript location is Bibliotheque National Lat. 16670 ff 19vb-21vb, and whose edition is Cser (2000). Texts of this type occur in great numbers and great variety in the last centuries of the Middle Ages. They summarise the rules of Latin syntax, interspersed occasionally with morphological information, in twenty-odd points. First we give short and typical sections of the text with some explanatory notes. Then we give an English translation of the selected sections, finally we discuss some aspects of the text as a whole.
In this paper we look at the demise of perfective reduplication in Latin and seek to answer the q... more In this paper we look at the demise of perfective reduplication in Latin and seek to answer the question why this process of erosion followed a phonologically rather strictly defined path. The small set of remaining reduplicated perfects is not a random collection of leftovers from the ruins of earlier morphology (as it is e.g. in Gothic) but displays remarkable phonological coherence in the documented period of the language. To understand why this should be so we look at the relevant phonotactic properties of simplex forms. It appears quite clearly that, for a variety of reasons, the number of stems beginning with p V p , t V t , k V k , b V b and s V s increased in the prehistory of Latin. The fact that this occurred and that voiceless stops figure more prominently in this configuration than other types of consonants may well have given rise to a new phonotactic pattern in which such stem-initial sequences were now legitimate (as opposed to Proto-Indo-European). It seems to be a plausible explanation th...
This paper examines the phonological entities called labiovelar stops in Classical Latin. The sta... more This paper examines the phonological entities called labiovelar stops in Classical Latin. The status of these entities involves the question whether they are segments (i.e., labiovelar stops) or clusters (i.e., sequences of a stop and a glide). The arguments for either position are discussed in detail and the literature is critically reviewed. The types of evidence that are taken into account are facts of frequency, phonetics, phonotactics, alternations and a specific assimilation process, and certain diachronic points are also considered. The conclusion is that the balance tilts slightly, but not definitively, towards the cluster interpretation.
The purpose of this paper is to present and explain the contrast between the purist tendencies (h... more The purpose of this paper is to present and explain the contrast between the purist tendencies (here narrowly defined as the replacement of loanwords with lexical material based on native resources) that existed in England and those that existed in the speech communities of smaller European languages. It is well known that in the case of English, purist tendencies were by and large unsuccessful (Barber 1976, Gorlach 1991:154 ff., Nevalainen 1999:358 ff.), but the opposite is true for smaller languages like Hungarian or Czech, as well as some of the major European languages, like German (Gardt 1999, Cser 2006). To understand why, two types of purist attitude have to be distinguished both typologically and historically (strictly in early modern and modern times). The first type is isolated and typically earlier, the second type (typically later) is intimately connected to institutional aspects of the speech community’s life, such as the expansion of schooling and universities and acad...
A latin nyelv történetének természetesen könyvtárnyi irodalma van, amely mögött sok évszázados fi... more A latin nyelv történetének természetesen könyvtárnyi irodalma van, amely mögött sok évszázados filológiai és szorosan vett nyelvészeti kutatómunka áll. A latin nyelv valamely korszakának, esetünkben a klasszikus latinnak a szinkrón fonológiai leírása azonban sokkal kevésbé feltárt terület, tudomásunk szerint Magyarországon a jelöltön kívül nem foglalkozott, és ma sem foglalkozik vele senki. Nem utolsó sorban azért nem, mert egy holt nyelv fonológiai leírása nem magától értetődően, könnyűszerrel elvégezhető feladat. A klasszikus latin különféle (célszerűen kiválasztott) jelenségeinek modern fonológiai elemzésére természetesen van példa a szakirodalomban, de a jelölt által önmaga elé tűzött átfogó feladatnak eddig senki nem látott neki komolyan.
This paper presents a classi"cation of sound changes that can be seen as largely descriptive and ... more This paper presents a classi"cation of sound changes that can be seen as largely descriptive and “pre÷theoretical”. The most elementary categories of phonological change include the conditioned vs. unconditioned vs. sporadic distinction, the featural vs. segmental vs. prosodic distinction, phonologisa-tion, morphologisation and lexicalisation as well as the contrast between sound change and persistent rule. The most general types of phonological change include assimilation, dissimilation, deletion, insertion, lenition, forti-tion and metathesis. In many cases it is argued that these seemingly self- explanatory terms conceal problematic issues and several layers of con.ict-ing interpretations. In the third part of the paper the “a/ermath” of sound changes (phonologisation, morphologisation and lexicalisation) as well as their generally reductive character (Lüdtke’s Law) is discussed.
This paper discusses a putative sound change in the early history of Latin and synchronic alterna... more This paper discusses a putative sound change in the early history of Latin and synchronic alternations apparently related to it. The lowering of short high vowels before the rhotic is problematic on several counts; so much so that serious doubt has been cast on its reality. On the other hand, due to widespread alternations in the morphophonology of Classical Latin it is reasonable to assume that such a lowering operated as a synchronic rule at that stage. A minor asymmetry in the relevant alternations of verbal affixes in infectum-based vs. perfectum-based formations presents an interesting problem to which I suggest two tentative explanations.
In the first half of the nineteenth century comparative and historical linguistics focused mainly... more In the first half of the nineteenth century comparative and historical linguistics focused mainly on morphological structure. Although important phonological discoveries were made, phonology played a subsidiary role to morphology. What could be called the models of language were all theories of morphology. These speculations were targets the Neogrammarians attacked vigorously, mainly in the spirit of uniformitarianism. Phonology was different in terms of abstractness. Sounds were treated in a superficially abstract manner, but this was based on the phonetically imprecise littera-tradition, the emphasis on correspondences, the focus on dead languages, and the impact of the Indian tradition. The Neogrammarians, by contrast, strove to make phonology more phonetic and more rigorous and, paradoxically, earned the contempt of their opponents for introducing a different kind of abstractness by reconstructing a segment not attested in unchanged form in any of the Indo-European languages. In turn, while the Neogrammarians admitted that de Saussure's analysis in the Mémoire is highly logical, they dismissed it as lacking sufficient empirical motivation. It appears that the argument reminded them of the analyses of the previous generation, and de Saussure's formulation, which they found unduly abstract, was superficially just the kind they wanted to purge linguistics of at last.
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Papers by András Cser
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