Abductive and Deductive Change

Abstract

This article takes as its point of departure an unusual phonological change in a Czech dialect. It then propores a model of phonological change which would make possible the undentanding of structural innovationr in the phonology of a homogeneous speech community. The model, which distinguishes two logically different modes o£ change (abductive and deductive), helps clarify the essential difference between 'internally motivated' change and change 'induced from without'. The model uses our experience of observed phonetic changes, and may consequently have some bearing on our understanding of the structure of phonology. t.1. In some localities in the Litomysl area in northeastern Bohemia, the traditional dialects as still spoken toward the end of the l9th century differed from the surroundirlg Czech dialects by a striking peculiarity: the occunence of apico-alveolar consonants /t d n/ correspondmg to Proto-Slavic bilabial consonants p *b *m in a small and dimini.shing number of very common lesemes, e.g. /koutit/ (Standard Czech koupsti) 'buy', /tekiie/ (pdknZ) 'nicely'? /di:lej/ (bfl§) 'white', /deiet/ (bet«eti) 'run?, /deemeno/ (bremeno) 'burden?, /ni:t/ (mfti) 'have', /nesto/ (mGsto) 'town'.l The LitomyFl dentals are mentioned in several 19th century works on Czech dialectology; they were even used in literary works as late as the 1890's to characterize foLk speech in that area. But even at that time, the dentals occurred only in the speech of the oldest generation of speakers and were an object of ridicule, celebrated in alliterating jeers like /ti:te ti:vo Nak je s tenou/ (P{te pivo vGak je s pGnou!) 'Drink yor beer, never mind the head!' or /holoude f troude na di:li: ni:se/ (Holoube v troubG na bBlf mBse) 'The young pigeon in the oven is on a white platter.' Now only a couple of etymologically isolated lexemes preserve this peculiarity of the old TetAk dialects as I will call them.g. /prati:sko/ (prapBsek) 'door post', /didla/ (bidla) 'flail', if thev are indeed still used.2 But it is clear from the endence that at one time in the past-as recently as the 1840's, according to Hodura (cited in Bblid 1966:40) the dialects in question regularly had dentals as reflexes of Proto-Slanc labials in certain environments.