The evolution of trapped sonorants in Czech in the light of phonological universals
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Requested lectures |
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| Description | This talk examines the phonological change from trapped to syllabic sonorants in Czech. We argue that this change follows a general diachronic pattern in which marked forms are replaced by unmarked ones. Clusters containing trapped sonorants are cross-linguistically marked because they are licensed only by weak licensors (empty V-slots). As empty V-slots lost their licensing capacity between the 14th and 17th centuries, the resulting unlicensed clusters were repaired via syllabic sonorants, which provide a strong licensor for the cluster (a full V-slot). |
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