The phonetic change theory by Haag – Żirmunski

The phonetic change theory by Haag – Żirmunski

POZNAŃSKIE SPOTKANIA JĘZYKOZNAWCZE, t. 25 (2013)
POZNAŃ LINGUISTIC FORUM, vol. 25 (2013)
Bogdan Walczak
Institute of Polish Philology
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
The phonetic change theory by Haag – Żirmunski
It is common knowledge that in historical and comparative linguistics, several types of phonetic changes have been identified. The first and most significant type consists of regular, exception-free phonetic changes referred to by the
Neogrammarians as sound change (Lautgesetze). The Leipzig school of thought
put forward a thesis (one of the theoretical and methodological principles defined by Herman Paul1) that in specific position-related conditions (contextual,
combinatory) a phonetic change occurs automatically in all words, simultaneously and without exception2.
Since its emergence, historical and comparative linguistics has identified
other types of (more or less irregular) phonetic changes as well as assimilations
(including distance assimilations like the Latin quinque from *pinque ← *penkw
e), dissimilations (like Małgorzata instead of Margorzata from Margaretha,
dostarczyć from dostatczyć or the dialectal świarczyć from świadczyć) and metatheses (like pchła from błcha, cf. the dialectal błeszka ‘pchełka’ [little flee]).
Analogous changes (rather awkwardly referred to as analogous compensations
as they not always result in elimination of an alternation: cf. wlokę – wleczesz
against the original wlekę – wleczesz) deserve a separate mention as their mechanism is located on the morphology level yet the results manifest themselves on
the phonetic level. It is worth adding that while Witold Mańczak coined four
laws of analogous development3 (these are statistical regularities, in my opinion
See H. Paul, Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte, Leipzig 1880.
Information about the Leipzig school of thought see A. Heinz, Dzieje językoznawstwa w
zarysie, Warsaw 1983, pp. 172–181.
3
See W. Mańczak, Prawa rozwoju analogicznego, in: W. Mańczak, Problemy językoznawstwa
ogólnego, Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków 1996, pp. 81–97.
1
2
2
Bogdan Walczak
justified), analogous changes may still be considered irregular in the sense that
we still do not know why in identical conditions they sometimes occur and sometimes do not (cf. gwiazda – gwieździe but ściana – ścianie, żona – żonie, also las
– w lesie but ślad – o śladzie etc., wlokę and wloką from wlec but siekę and sieką
from siec etc.)4.
This set of types should be topped with irregular phonetic development resulting from frequency (cf. podobno → pono, wasza miłość → waszmość etc.)
(this is also Witold Mańczak’s concept5, challenged by many and, in my opinion,
justified, as expressed in a separate publication6) and changes triggered off by the
hyper-correctness trend (hyperisms like zmierzch instead of zmierzk (cf. zmrok)
or proper name Mniszech instead of Mniszek).
However, let us not lose our focus, which is the most important phonetic
changes i.e. regular, exception-free phonetic changes (Neogrammarians’
Lautgesetze).
As we know, the opponents of the Leipzig school of thought (Hugo Schuchardt, representatives of linguistic geography headed by Romanist Jules Gilliéron
and Georg Wenker, professor of German studies, Italian neo-linguists) denied the
principle of no exceptions in sound change.French7 and especially German8 language atlases proved the existence of large areas where a specific change occurs
in some words which fails to occur in others (for example, the general German
forms sechs, Ochsen, wachsen have their equivalent sechs in the vicinity of Cologne, yet ossen, wassen near Trier has equivalents – sechs, ochsen but not wassen etc.). The issue is quite widespread. A case in point is the varied range of
words with the ra– → re– (redło, redzić, reno etc.) prefix so familiar to Polish
dialectologists. As a result, there are areas where people say redło but not rano
etc. More radical representatives of linguistic geography have therefore concluded that there is no such thing as a regular phonetic change (reminiscent of a
general phonetic process): the change is individual, it occurs in a specific word
and thence is transferred by possible analogy to other words9.
No-one questions the existence of regular phonetic processes in such a radical, extreme form anymore. However, the achievements of linguistic geography
4
More on the subject in: B. Walczak, J. Migdał, A. Piotrowska-Wojaczyk, O zagadkach
ewolucji języka, in: Tajemnice rozwoju, ed. D. Bieńkowska and A. Lenartowicz, Łódź 2009,
p
p. 333–341.
5
See W. Mańczak, Nieregularny rozwój fonetyczny spowodowany frekwencją, in:
W. Mańczak, Problemy językoznawstwa ogólnego, Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków 1996, pp. 52–76.
6
See B. Walczak, Witolda Mańczaka teoria nieregularnego rozwoju fonetycznego spowodowanego frekwencją – koncepcja zasadna czy błędna?, ,,Studia Językoznawcze” 9, 2010, pp.
285–294.
7
J. Gilliéron, E. Edmont, L’Atlas lingustique de la France, Paris 1902–1912.
8
G. Wenker, F. Wrede, Th. Frings, Deutscher Sprachatlas, Berlin 1926–1937.
9
See the subject discussed in A. Heinz, op. cit., pp. 210–211.
The phonetic change theory by Haag – Żirmunski
3
have affected theories of phonetic changes. First Karl Haag10 followed by Wiktor
Maksymowicz Żirmunski11, put forward a thesis about two types of phonetic
changes. The first type is the regular, exception-free phonetic change described
and theoretically developed by the Leipzig school: spontaneous, mechanical and
common i.e. encompassing all possible cases (provided that specific position
conditions are fulfilled) i.e. all appropriate words. Once this regular process
comes to an end (as contrary to the “universalist” term “sound change” coined by
the Neogrammarians, any regular phonetic change is of course limited in time
and space), a change may spread by analogy, “from one word to another” (the
second type of phonetic changes discovered and described by linguistic
geography).
A question arises: how can we tell whether in a given area we are dealing
with a regular phonetic process or a substitute process (a change spreading “from
one word to another”).
Ludwik Zabrocki12 provided an answer to this question. Let me recall it brief13
ly : a language’s phonetic system results from the distributive functions of specific sounds. The system’s starting point is individual sound arrangements in the
form of words (so-called code arrangements)14. The problem of whether in a
given area we are dealing with a regular phonetic process or a substitute process
may emerge only when dialects with code arrangements in a prevailing part of
the vocabulary are juxtaposed. These are the same words (the “substantial”
sounds may vary, yet their distributive role needs to be the same). Only then can
sound transposition (substitution) occur. The process starts with words which
have the same meaning and are junctive in the realm of sound distribution i.e.
have the same number of sound elements, for example the Hochdeutsch Wasser
K. Haag, Űber Mundartengeographie, ,,Alemannia” 29, 1901, pp. 107–113; idem,
Sprachwandel im Lichte der Mundartengrenzen, ,,Teuthonista” 6, 1929–1930, pp. 1–34; see also
idem, Sätze über Sprachbewegung, ,,Zeitschrift für Hochdeutsch” 1, 1900, pp. 138–141.
11
W.M. Żirmunski, Probleme der vergleichenden Grammatik der deutschen Mundarten, in
W.M. Żirmunski, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, Berlin 1956, pp. 351–387.
12
L. Zabrocki, Prawa głosowe, procesy głosowe, onomastyka, ,,Onomastica” VII, 1961, 1–2,
pp. 1–20. Reprinted in: L. Zabrocki, U podstaw struktury i rozwoju języka, Warszawa–Poznań
1980, pp. 308–321. See also idem, Gesetze bei Űbernahme von fremden Orts- und Flurnamen.
Versuch einer strukturellen Betrachtungsweise, ,,Studia Onomastica Monaciensia” 4, 1961, pp.
792–797.
13
In another context, I reminded Ludwik Zabrocki’s concept in: B. Walczak, Rola onimii w
rekonstrukcji pierwotnych granic językowych, w: Systemy onomastyczne w słowiańskich gwarach
mieszanych i przejściowych, ed. S. Warchoła, Lublin 1993, pp. 309–318. However, in my opinion
a volume dedicated to Professor Zabrocki, opening Język a poznanie (Language and cognition)
poses a great opportunity for a repeated reminder.
14
More on the subject in L. Zabrocki, Układ kodowy i jego struktury pochodne, "Sprawozdania Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk, Wydział Filologiczno-Filozoficzny" 79, 1961,
pp. 24–27.
10
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Bogdan Walczak
and the Lower German water. In the case of a substitution process (when
a change spreads from one word to another), t is replaced by s.
This type of substitute change immediately affects the phonetic system (built
up with all distributive functions of specific sounds) of the dialect, adopting a
new sound – in this case affecting the Lower German system. It is modified with
the emergence of s with a distributive function “in mid-word between vowels”.
On the other hand, this modification results in a respective change in all Lower
German words which do not have their equivalents in Hochdeutsch (are not junctive with respect to specific Hochdeutsch words). The phonetic system provides,
therefore, some sort of a bridge to substitute sounds in disjunctive words).
The substitution process results not only in what Ludwik Zabrocki referred
to as levelling synchronic structures between a dialect which is the source of new
sounds and a dialect which adopts them. With respect to code arrangements, the
adopting dialect may enjoy complete synchronic compliance with its expansive
neighbour. However, this practically never leads to complete diachronic (etymological) compliance (that would be an extremely rare, statistically implausible
occurrence).
This is because substitution can disrupt (and in many specific cases i.e. in
numerous code arrangements it disrupts) the continuity of the diachronic structure of code arrangements of the dialect adopting new sounds. This and this
alone allows for differentiating between a substitution process (spreading “from
one word to another”) and a regular phonetic process. The latter automatically
embraces all words without exception, which ensures continuity of their diachronic structure.
On the other hand, in the case of a substitution process, the semantic level
may always interfere in specific words: if a new sound were to result in a code
arrangement merging with another one already existing in a specific dialect, there
will be no substitution unless the old sound contradicts the new adopted phonetic
system (all the distributive functions of sounds). This scenario is possible (and
frequently takes place) as a result of a specific sound’s distributive multi-functionality (in other words, accompanying distributive neutralization in specific
positions). Distributive multi-functionality plays an especially important role in
sound transposition in disjunctive words. There are three scenarios involved:
transposition in line with the diachronic (etymological) structure, preservation of
the old sound (defying the diachronic structure) and introduction of a hypercorrect form (which also disrupts continuity of the etymological structure). Hyperisms, a very frequent phenomenon, sometimes emerge even as a result of
sound transposition in junctive words.
There are also other reasons why changes within the substitution process are
not homogenous. This is because the degree of completeness of the adopted phonetic system depends also on the number of junctive words and the type of communicative junction of both dialects in question. Oftentimes one communicative
The phonetic change theory by Haag – Żirmunski
5
community15 is exposed to another within a relatively small number of words
(for example in a trade, agricultural or military register). Initially, the new phonetic form is adopted primarily by all these words (this is why it is plausible to
have the new sechs, ochsen coexisting with the old wassen, cf. above).
On top of that, the entire process is impacted by as yet poorly examined,
purely internal regularities which can result in the substituting of Lower German
consonants as part of the “Lautverschiebung” where the first consonant to change
is t followed by p and only then by k. Similarly (another example of internal
regularities) substitution typically occurs in numerals, later on in nouns and finally in verbs. Changes occur more frequently in words enjoying high frequency
and broad extension, more slowly in rare words and those with limited extension.
And so on. Ludwik Zabrocki concluded his reasoning in the following manner:
To sum up our reasoning, one should conclude that on top of changes […] occurring “from one word to another”, there are also phonetic changes resulting from
phonetic processes. Phonetic processes include all words without exception.
With substitution processes, we deal only with taking over foreign sounds in the
realm of synchronous structures. From the point of view of etymology, the development of specific sounds in specific words may defy etymological continuity
i.e. a diachronic structure. In this case, the diachronic structure is undermined.
This fact is excellent proof of phonetic changes occurring by way of substitution. This scenario is confirmed by any deviations, as discussed above16.
The theory by Haag – Żirmunski – Zabrocki (the role of Ludwik Zabrocki
calls for special emphasis as he shaped his predecessors’ concept into homogenous, very well-thought linguistic theories which were thoroughly justified from
the material point of view and transparently articulated) in the light of the contemporary condition of linguistics presents itself as a theory that adequately describes and explains the complex reality of phonetic changes on a spatial level.
There is no later concept or linguistic discovery that is capable of contradicting
its validity. Its two aspects seem to call for comments or rather supplements.
Above all, Ludwik Zabrocki (and his predecessors) applies it to an area of a
dialectally diversified national language (ethnic). However, in my opinion it refers to the entire continuum of related and similar dialects and languages. Zabrocki referred to a boundary between dialects (“The problem whether, following
contact of two dialects, we deal with a phonetic process or merely a transposition
of sounds “from one word to another”, may only be posed when we are dealing
with dialects with the same “code arrangements” prevailing in their vocabulary
with respect to those sounds’ distributive function. In other words, the same
For the notion of a communicative community and its role in linguistic communication, see
L. Zabrocki, Wspólnoty komunikatywne w genezie i rozwoju języka niemieckiego, t. 1: Prehistoria
języka niemieckiego, Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków 1962.
16
L. Zabrocki, Prawa głosowe, procesy głosowe, onomastyka…, pp. 314–315.
15
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Bogdan Walczak
words”17) yet the situation may also be referred to a boundary between two closely related languages, as they may also have the same code arrangements prevailing in their vocabulary i.e. junctive words. While experts’ opinions vary significantly, it is worth remembering that the question “is it a dialect or a language?”
(i.e. what is a dialect of a language and what is a separate language) cannot be
answered in strictly linguistic terms without referring to sociolinguistic data,
user awareness and, first and foremost, without considering extra-linguistic factors like sense of national identity, objectively – in the light of sociological criteria – the existence or non-existence of a nation or even non-existence of a state18.
Therefore the term ethnolect19 has been increasingly popular, as a neutral notion
(which allows to avoid or ignore the “language or dialect dilemma”), encompassing the traditional notion of a language and the traditional notion of a dialect.
One could say that the theory by Haag – Żirmunski – Zabrocki refers in a spatial
sense to the entire area of ethnolects, which are close, in some respects, to genetics (genealogy). What is more, the notion of junctive words necessitates some
modification. While Zabrocki refers to them as words carrying the same meaning with the same number of sound elements, all the examples provided by him
suggest that his “sound element” is nothing else but a sound.
However, the notion of a “sound element” should be extended to encompass
sound groups (which appear in co-etymological equivalents) because the concept suggests that junction words include not only pairs like the Polish góra and
the Ukrainian hora but also pairs like the Polish brzoza and the Ukrainian bereza
(in the latter case, despite the different number of sounds the number of sound elements would be the same: b–rzo–z–a and b–ere–z–a). Similarly, to refer to a different Slavic example, junctive words are not only series, like the Serbian grad,
the Macedońian grad and Bulgarian grad, but also series like the Serbian sveća,
the Macedonian svek’a and the Bulgarian svešta or, better still, the Serbian meзa,
the Macedonian mega and the Bulgarian mežda (in the latter cases the number of
sound elements would be the same: s–v–e–ć–a, s–v–e–k’–a and s–v–e–št–a and
m–e–з–a, m–e–ģ–a and m–e–žd–a despite the different numbers of sounds).
The theoretical importance and the explicatory power of the theory by Haag
– Żirmunski – Zabrocki is indisputable; it allows us to understand, describe and
17 Ibidem, p. 311.
See in A. Weinsberg, Językoznawstwo ogólne, Warszawa 1983, pp. 63–65, B. Walczak,
Język czy dialekt – problem lingwistyczny?, w: Korowód idei i metod. Prace na jubileusz Profesora
Czesława P. Dutki i Zakładu Teorii Literatury, ed. G. Kubski and M. Mikołajczuk, Zielona Góra
2006, pp. 23–32 and idem, Status etnolektu (problem „język czy dialekt?”) w polskiej literaturze
językoznawczej, w: Leksykalno-stylistyczne zjawiska w polszczyźnie ogólnej, ed. E. SkorupskaRaczyńska and J. Rychter, Gorzów Wielkoposki 2007, pp. 115–124.
19
For justification of the term ethnolect see A.F. Majewicz, Języki wymierające i zagrożone
– stan i perspektywy, w: Wielka encyklopedia geografii świata, v. XIV: W. Maciejewski, Świat
języków, Poznań 1999, pp. 95–96.
17
18
The phonetic change theory by Haag – Żirmunski
7
explain many historical and linguistic facts and phenomena. It provides rational
and convincing answers to many questions. In the publication mentioned above20
I resorted to an example of a single application of the theory in question, namely
reconstruction of the original linguistic boundary between two closely related
languages. In a related piece of research, disjunctive words play a key role (as
they better visualise the disrupted diachronic structure) and they tend to be proper names (geographic as closely related to terrain): onomastic resources contain
many more disjunctive words than appellative resources. This is because only
their names (or parts) are junctive, as they are structurally (etymologically) transparent, sometimes referred to as internally comprehensible. They may be arranged into pairs of junctive words and appropriate proper names or appellatives
from another language21. Such names can be numerous or even prevail among
place names (micro toponyms) – typically quite new, with a varying degree of
retained motivation. On the other hand, they are rare among other geographic
names (choronyms, local names, hydronyms, oronyms etc.). Here, disjunctive
words prevail. In the process of substitution, they change old sounds to new ones
by means of a phonetic system i.e. only where the new synchronous structure
requires it. Sounds which should be changed from an etymological point of view
yet are not in conflict with the new system as a result of distributive multi-functionality (in the system, they are acceptable in specific arrangements) remain
intact. This involves intrusion into the diachronic structure, a conclusive proof of
the process’s substitution nature; identifying the phenomenon’s nature (a regular
phonetic process or a substitution change) in a given area is a key moment in
reconstructing the original boundary between closely related languages (which
becomes blurred over the course of time, with numerous subsequent changes).
This reconstruction is of course only one example of the theoretical importance and operational utility of the Haag – Żirmunski – Zabrocki theory. Undoubtedly, the development, specification and ultimate construction of the theory
of phonetic changes is among the most significant aspects of Ludwik Zabrocki’s
contribution into the theoretical and methodological achievements of contemporary linguistics.
Keywords: diachronic linguistics, language evolution, phonetic development, two types
of phonetic changes
Translation provided as part of the “Index Plus 2012” programme
Translated by: Piotr Machońko
Proof-reading by: Graham Crawford
See B. Walczak, Rola onimii w rekonstrukcji pierwotnych granic językowych….
In fact, there are fewer such pairs than could be expected as proper names (with few exceptions) are not as well-known as appellatives while an association with a common noun often does
not occur despite the name’s obvious and complete etymological transparency.
20
21