Charting the rise and demise of a phonotactically motivated change in Scots

Abstract

Although Old English [f] and [v] are represented unambiguously in Older Scots orthography by <f> and <v> (or <u>) in initial and morpheme-internal position, in morpheme-final position <f> and <v>/<u> appear to be used interchangeably for both of these Old English sounds. As a result, there is often a mismatch between the spellings and the etymologically expected consonant. This paper explores these spellings using a substantial database of Older Scots texts, which have been grapho-phonologically parsed as part of the From Inglis to Scots (FITS) project. Three explanations are explored for this apparent mismatch: (1) it was a spelling-only change; (2) there was a near merger of /f/ and /v/ in Older Scots; (3) final [v] devoiced in (pre-)Older Scots but this has subsequently been reversed. A close analysis of the data suggests that the Old English phonotactic constraint against final voiced fricatives survived into the pre-Literary Scots period, leading to automatic devoicing of any fricative that appeared in word-final position (a version of Hypothesis 3), and this, interacting with final schwa loss, gave rise to the complex patterns of variation we see in the Older Scots data. Thus, the devoicing of [v] in final position was not just a phonetically natural sound change, but also one driven by a pre-existing phonotactic constraint in the language. This paper provides evidence for the active role of phonotactic constraints in the development of sound changes, suggesting that phonotactic constraints are not necessarily at the mercy of the changes which conflict with them, but can be involved in the direction of sound change themselves.

Phonotactics, graphotactics and contrast: the history of Scots dental fricative spellings

“…This view is supported by the almost complete lack of <y> spellings for word-final dental fricatives in the FITS corpus. Compared to the data for final [f] and [v] in Maguire et al (2019), the dentals show far less spelling variation in final position, both for etymologically voiceless, i.e. etymologically final, and etymologically voiced, i.e.…”

“…Given that many present-day Anglic varieties have voiced fricatives in such verbs, this appears to be evidence for the misalignment of phonemic and graphemic systems in this earliest of Scots documentary evidence. However, as has been argued by Maguire et al (2019) based on spelling differences for labiodental fricatives, loss of final schwa in early Scots did not necessarily lead to final voiced fricativesat least not at first. Rather, it seems that the OE phonotactic constraint banning final voiced fricatives survived in Scotland for some time following the onset of schwa loss, resulting in a period where newly-final fricatives effectively devoiced (see figure 13).…”

“…The case of fricatives that became final due to schwa loss are probably an exception to this pattern as seen in spellings such as <luf> 'love' and morphologically related <luffis> 'loves'. Such cases are discussed in Maguire et al (2019) for labio-dentals; for dentals see sections 5.2.1 and 5.2.2 below. 15 with is omitted from our analysis since in PDE, where the fricative survives, it varies between voiced and voiceless realisations, while in Scots the fricative is mostly lost.…”

The origins ofowldin Scots

“…This article highlights the importance of considering not only internal developments in the phonological history of Scots (as amply illustrated in Aitken & Macafee 2002; Johnston 1997a, 1997b), but also English influence on the language through the centuries. English and Scots have always been closely related and share many changes, and it is likely that some of these changes represent influence from the south, especially via standard forms of the language (see Maguire et al 2019 for further illustration). Whilst there were many independent changes in the two languages, we must always bear the possibility in mind that phonological changes in the history of Scots, sometimes shared by northern English dialects, can have an exogenous origin too.…”

Voiced or voiceless? Old english <f> In Middle English <fd> Sequences

“… This also happened in Older Scots, see Maguire et al. (forthcoming) Indeed it still survives in many Scots dialects and/or in the Scots end of the typical Scottish English speaker's register continuum. See further, Molineaux & Alcorn (). …”