Abstract
This investigation of Open Syllable Lengthening in Middle English and Middle Dutch treats the changes as the result of listener-based reinterpretations of coarticulatory effects on vowel duration. OSL in English is a result of compensatory lengthening, which is analyzed as a hypocorrection. OSL in Middle Dutch involves a hypercorrection in which the duration of etymologically long vowels is reinterpreted as a purely phonetic correlate of stress in open syllables. The different phonological bases for OSL provide a diachronic explanation for the retention of contrastive vowel quantity in Modern English and its absence in Modern Dutch.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 61-104 |
| Number of pages | 44 |
| Journal | Diachronica |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2006 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language