TY - JOUR

T1 - Sound change or community change? The speech community in sound change studies

T2 - A case study of Scottish Gaelic

AU - Nance, Claire

PY - 2022/9/30

Y1 - 2022/9/30

N2 - This paper considers the typical focus of analysis in a sound change study across generations: the speech community. I argue that changes in social practices across generations may mean that generational comparisons can be problematic, and these issues are particularly pertinent in small and endangered language communities. Using data from Scottish Gaelic (Celtic, ISO = gla), a minority endangered language of Scotland, I exemplify the challenges posed by the speech community construct via an examination of lateral production across generations of speakers. Gaelic traditionally contrasts three phonemic laterals, but analysis shows that this might be changing. There are two possible directions for sound change in the Gaelic lateral system: results show that younger speakers produce some palatalised laterals as palatal glides without laterality. Meanwhile, the remaining laterals are less acoustically distinct among younger generations, suggesting the possibility of future merger. The construct upon which any apparent- or real-time study of sound change relies is the speech community as a unit of analysis for change. While there are differences among the groups of speakers analysed here, I argue it is potentially problematic to consider this to be a form of sound change due to differences in social practices among generations surrounding Gaelic usage and socialisation. Ultimately, I advocate for a socially-informed approach to sound change study which sympathetically takes local social structure into account.

AB - This paper considers the typical focus of analysis in a sound change study across generations: the speech community. I argue that changes in social practices across generations may mean that generational comparisons can be problematic, and these issues are particularly pertinent in small and endangered language communities. Using data from Scottish Gaelic (Celtic, ISO = gla), a minority endangered language of Scotland, I exemplify the challenges posed by the speech community construct via an examination of lateral production across generations of speakers. Gaelic traditionally contrasts three phonemic laterals, but analysis shows that this might be changing. There are two possible directions for sound change in the Gaelic lateral system: results show that younger speakers produce some palatalised laterals as palatal glides without laterality. Meanwhile, the remaining laterals are less acoustically distinct among younger generations, suggesting the possibility of future merger. The construct upon which any apparent- or real-time study of sound change relies is the speech community as a unit of analysis for change. While there are differences among the groups of speakers analysed here, I argue it is potentially problematic to consider this to be a form of sound change due to differences in social practices among generations surrounding Gaelic usage and socialisation. Ultimately, I advocate for a socially-informed approach to sound change study which sympathetically takes local social structure into account.

KW - laterals

KW - phonetics

KW - Scottish Gaelic

KW - sound change

KW - speech community

U2 - 10.1515/lingvan-2021-0023

DO - 10.1515/lingvan-2021-0023

M3 - Journal article

VL - 8

SP - 677

EP - 689

JO - Linguistics Vanguard

JF - Linguistics Vanguard

SN - 2199-174X

IS - s5

ER -