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Prefix Allomorphy and the Phonologisation of s‐Deletion in Latin
Author(s) -
Cser András
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
transactions of the philological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-968X
pISSN - 0079-1636
DOI - 10.1111/1467-968x.12178
Subject(s) - prefix , allomorph , sound change , linguistics , contrast (vision) , sound (geography) , history , morpheme , computer science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , physics , acoustics
Latin s ‐final prefixes show extensive allomorphy, which can be ascribed to different diachronic processes such as the drive to maintain contrast, analogical attraction and a sound change that deleted s before voiced consonants. We argue that the latter sound change led to three different phonologisation processes due to distributional imbalance in the relevant segments as well as a simultaneous sound change that also affected s . The evidence for the competing phonologisation processes is provided by the different alternations displayed by the s ‐final prefixes.