Variation and the reconditioning of phonological rules: Cases from Germanic and Romance

Abstract

In genetically related dialects or languages a phonological rule may have the same in- and output with a difference of conditioning. This is a type of rule with variable conditioning, as has been discussed in sociolinguistic research on variation. A variable conditioning in synchronic perspective may produce in diachronic development a reconditioning, as we call it in the present study. However, the reconditioning phenomenon has not been recognized in historical linguistics. Early umlaut in Germanic, affecting the short nonlow vowels, offers a paradigm case of reconditioning. While the in- and output of the rule (X → Y) is identical in both North-West Germanic and Gothic (East Germanic), the conditioning is different, North-West Germanic exhibiting vocalic and some consonantal conditioning (X → Y/Z). Gothic showing only consonantal conditioning (X → Y/Z'). As a result, the Gothic phenomenon is often regarded as having developed independently of the North-West Germanic one. We find an essentially parallel, though more complex, problem in early Romance. Here again, a series of vocalic developments, generally viewed as unrelated phenomena, show a clear pattern of reconditioning involving syllable structure conditioning as well as vocalic and consonantal conditioning.