Dynamics and Change of Liquids
The class of liquids, consisting mostly of laterals and rhotics, is subjected to much synchronic variability and historical sound change. Their half-consonant and half-vowel-like structure is of great interest to the project “Dynamics and Change of Liquids”. The question of the phonetic boundary between the subclasses of liquids that are laterals and rhotics appears to be particularly important in the face of the multifold sound changes in which a hearer assigns a liquid to another subclass than that intended by the speaker.
In a first step, the project aims to investigate the conditions for simple “confusions” of liquids in Modern Greek, i. e. spontaneous rhoticisations and lambdacisations. The study is guided by the following two questions: first, which phonetic characteristics of lateral and rhotic allophones are able to trigger the sound change? Second, what are the factors Greek speakers use to constitute the contrastive categories of /l/ and /r/?
The second part of the project is dedicated to the study of sound change phenomena which are not restricted to one place within the linear sound sequence. In liquid long-distance metathesis a liquid is perceived as being produced in another syllable position or even in another syllable than where it was produced. Experimental approaches using perception tests will help to identify the factors for such a shift within the sound sequence. The phenomenon of liquid dissimilation describes cases where one of two non-adjacent liquids is categorised into the wrong liquid subclass. Dissimilation has already been dealt with in the literature since the early 1980s, and is described as a special case within perception-oriented models of sound change, but it still awaits examination in the laboratory.
The project on sound change phenomena involving liquids is being conducted within the context of a Research Fellowship of the Center for Advanced Studies (LMU) with the support of Jonathan Harrington. For publications see http://www.phonetik.uni-muenchen.de/personen/mitarbeiter/mueller_daniela/index.html.
