Affiliation:
1. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
2. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
3. University of Waikato
Abstract
Abstract
This paper demonstrates that unexpected sound changes are best explained by an approach that accounts for
different motivations: phonetic, structural and social. Here, we focus on a multifaceted investigation of the cross-linguistically
uncommon bilabial trills to show the complex interaction between different drivers of sound change. In this paper, we highlight
and examine the prenasalized voiced bilabial trill
mʙ and plain voiceless bilabial trill
p
[ʙ̥] found in a
number of Oceanic languages spoken on Malekula Island in Vanuatu. We offer a comparative-historical analysis, and we identify the
various forces that have led to the emergence and persistence of
mʙ and
p
in Malekula languages: the
historical articulatory environments, the particular make-up of the consonant inventories of these languages, complementary sound
changes and phonological processes, contact with non-Austronesian languages, and in-group identity attachment. Furthermore, we
offer a hypothesis for the relative timing of these factors on the historical pathway of Malekula’s bilabial trills.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics