on u > v; history of discovery of language families

Hsin-Chang Chen writes:

Since my master's career in Taiwan inspired by my advisor, I've been

doing some research on finding microscopic sound change implications

(implicational scaling) across hundreds of Chinese dialects from IPA

transcriptions published by different authors.  One of my findings about

Mandarin dialects, which I don't know how to explain phonetically yet, is:

the rhyme [u] conditionally becomes syllabic [v] in the following order:

first u > v (without consonant initial), then fu > fv, then kv

and khv (unaspirated and aspirated k), then xv (or hv) and finally u becomes

v after all other consonant initials (no distinctions are attested).  There

are no exceptions.  The dialects (at least seven in number, depending on how

you count them) found with u > v are found hundreds or thousands of miles

apart with dialects that don't show u > v in the areas separating them.  I

wonder if this sound change implication can be phonetically universal and

how we can account for it phonetically.

Ohala replies: 

That it is a high vowel that is subject to this change can be explained by aerodynamic principles.  This is covered briefly in the first of the course readings “The origin of sound patterns in vocal tract constraints.”  See pp. 204ff.  There is another paper that goes into this pattern that is not on my home page, but here is a link:

http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/annual_report/documents/2008/turbulence%20final.pdf

An interesting aspect of the sound pattern you found is that the [u] which has two constrictions, one at the tongue dorsum and another at the lips, when it changes to a voiced approximant, only manifests itself at the labial place, not the dorsal.  This pattern can be explained by acoustic principles. See the paper on my home page:  “The story of [w].. (1977);  here’s the link:

http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/users/ohala/papers/story_of_w.pdf

As for the order of the implicational hierarchy, more research would have to be done.  My suspicion is that acoustic factors might be involved.  This would best be done on a language/dialect that had similar sounds and sound sequences but which has not exhibited these sound changes.  In such a study one looks for the “seeds”: of sound change.

7/7 class:

You didn't mention the discovery of the Finno-Ugric language family.  I

remember reading somewhere (probably in one of the books on that language

family) that the relationship of Sami, Finnish/Estonian and Hungarian was

found earlier than the discovery of the IE language family.  But it could be

false.  A quick search on Wikipedia didn't turn out much.  Also, it would

be awesome if you could mention in passing when the other major language

families of the world were discovered.

Ohala replies:

There are a dozen or so major language families and, quite frankly, I do not control the literature on the history of their discovery, which includes convincing empirical (statistical) evidence.  As in the case of Indo-European, such discovery is a gradual process involving many individuals contributing their evidence at different times.  You are correct that some of the early discoveries of the Finno-Ugric family came in the late 18^th c.  Although there had long been a recognition of the relation of Hungarian and Finnish (and other languages in the Baltic region (Estonian), a rather dramatic breakthrough came in 1770 when János Sajnovics published his Demonstatio… [I have an orig. ed. In my collection]  showing that Sami, a language spoken in the north of Norway, was also related to Hungarian.  His work was built on and elaborated by Johan Ihre (whom I mentioned in class) in 1772 and especially by Samuel Gyarmathi in 1799.