Incipient tonogenesis in Phnom Penh Khmer: Computational studies

Abstract

Abstract:In the colloquial Phnom Penh dialect of Khmer (Cambodian), lexical use of F 0 is emerging together with an intermediate VOT category and breathy phonation following the loss of /r/ in onsets (e.g., ្រ ក� /kruː/ 'teacher' > [k h ṳ̀ ː]). I show how this incipient tonogenesis might arise in a series of computational simulations tracing the evolution of multivariate phonetic category distributions in a population of ideal observers. Acoustic production data from a fieldwork study conducted in Phnom Penh was used as the starting point for the simulations. After establishing that the basic framework predicted relative stability over time, two possible responses to a phonetic production bias were considered: one in which agents correctly identified the source of (and thereby compensated for) the effects of the bias, and one in which agents misattributed the acoustic effects of the bias as a property of the onset. Good qualitative fits to the empirical production data were found for the latter group of learners, while the outcome for compensating learners resembled production data from a related dialect. These results are consistent with the sudden and discontinuous nature of many sound changes, and suggest that what appear to be enhancement effects may also emerge under different assumptions about the number of cue dimensions accessible to or deemed relevant by the learner.

Linking Cognitive and Social Aspects of Sound Change Using Agent‐Based Modeling

“…The machinery in the IP‐model needs to be adapted to handle sound change with a much longer time window than the types of sound change considered so far, such as metathesis (Blevins & Garrett, ; Egurtzegi, ), dissimilation (Abrego‐Collier, ; Alderete & Frisch, ), and phonologization (Hyman, ; Kiparsky, ; Kirby, , ). We are currently exploring the extent to which it is possible in the IP‐model to derive this type of change as a consequence of an interaction‐driven incremental shift in shape trajectories.…”

“…143–145, also for an extension of this principle to push‐chains). Taken together, principles 1 and 2 guarantee a degree of stability in the computational model of sound change (see Kirby, for a further discussion); that is, they prevent mergers of different phonological categories and therefore of semantic loss. Whenever an outlier is absorbed, then a member of the same category is removed either randomly or using a form of memory loss or probabilistically.…”

“…143-145, also for an extension of this principle to push-chains). Taken together, principles 1 and 2 guarantee a degree of stability in the computational model of sound change (see Kirby, 2014 for a further discussion); that is, they prevent mergers of different phonological categories and therefore of semantic loss. 3.…”

On the Origin of Post-Aspirated Stops: Production and Perception of /s/ + Voiceless Stop Sequences in Andalusian Spanish

“…Following Hyman (1976Hyman ( , 2013 phonologization is defined as the exaggeration of a phonetic effect "beyond what can be considered universal" (Hyman, 2013, p. 6). The use of such an exaggerated phonetic effect in the perception of a phonological contrast-in the absence of pre-aspiration or [s]-would then indicate that postaspiration in Andalusian Spanish is to a certain degree phonologized (see Baker et al, 2011;Beddor, 2009;Kirby, 2014, for similar accounts of phonologization).…”

Associating the origin and spread of sound change using agent-based modelling applied to /s/-retraction in English

“…The concern in Ettlinger (2007) was to show how vowel chain shifting emerges as a consequence of stored and updated exemplars. Kirby's (2014) computational model was used to argue for functional considerations in ongoing sound changes affecting plosive contrasts in the Phnom Penh variety of Khmer. Blevins & Wedel's (2009) computational simulation showed how sound change typically fails to create homophones in minimal pairs that cannot be reliably disambiguated by pragmatic information.…”