On the Origin and Causes of Sound Change: A Review of Related Literature

Abstract

There is no dispute over the fact that languages change and vary continually. All the inquiries in all languages have proven this statement to the extent that some linguists consider a change and a variation in languages as a rule. Knowingly, change and variation occurs at almost all core linguistic levels: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, etc. The most extensively investigated topic in studies of language variation and change, in particular, and in linguistic in general is sound change (henceforth SC). SC is seen as a developmental process pertinent to both phonetics and phonology. However, differences in views have been witnessed in naming what has been traditionally called SC (e.g., the alternation theory; Baudouin: 1910 in Stankiewicz 1972), all the different points of view have the same sense of meaning. Yet what causes sounds to change, and from which origin they are drawn are the most tantalizing questions. The point worthy discussion in this paper is the different arguments and perspectives raised about the causes and origin of SC.Linguists who concerned themselves with the study of language variation and change have accounted for two major assumptions that have impacts on how sounds change, namely: social and linguistic factors. This review excludes the first assumption and details the linguistic theories relative to the causes and origin of SC linguistically. There are three perspectives on the origin of sound change: articulatory, perceptual, and a combination of articulatory and perceptual theories, while two prominent controversies on the causes of SC have been identified as teleological vs. non-teleological causes of SC.