View source for Chain shift

{{Short description|Sound changes affecting each other}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2010}}
{{IPA notice}}
{{Sound change}}

In [[historical linguistics]], a '''chain shift''' is a set of [[sound changes]] in which the change in pronunciation of one [[speech sound]] (typically, a [[phoneme]]) is linked to, and presumably causes, a change in pronunciation of other sounds.<ref name="Murray">{{cite book|last=Murray|first=Robert|chapter=Historical linguistics: The study of language change|title=Contemporary Linguistics An Introduction|editor=W. O'Grady |editor2=J. Archibald |editor3=M. Aronoff |editor4=J. Rees-Miller|publisher=Bedford St. Martin|year=2001|pages=[https://archive.org/details/contemporaryling00ogra/page/287 287–346]|isbn=0-312-24738-9|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/contemporaryling00ogra/page/287}}</ref> The sounds involved in a chain shift can be ordered into a "chain" in such a way that after the change is complete, each phoneme ends up sounding like what the phoneme before it in the chain sounded like ''before'' the change.{{specify|date=February 2017|reason=This does seem to happen sometimes, but I can't find a source suggesting it is necessarily true.}} The changes making up a chain shift, interpreted as rules of [[phonology]], are in what is termed ''[[counterfeeding order]]''.{{clarify|date=February 2017}}

A well-known example is the [[Great Vowel Shift]], which was a chain shift that affected all of the [[long vowel]]s in [[Middle English]].<ref name="Fromkin">{{cite book|last1=Fromkin|first1=Victoria|last2=Rodman|first2=Robert|title=An Introduction to Language|publisher=Harcourt Brace|year=1993|pages=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontola00from_0/page/326 326–327]|isbn=0-03-054983-3|url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontola00from_0/page/326}}</ref> The changes to the [[front vowel]]s may be summarized as follows:

: {{IPA|aː}} → {{IPA|eː}} → {{IPA|iː}} → {{IPA|aɪ}}

A '''drag chain''' or '''pull chain''' is a chain shift in which the phoneme at the "leading" edge of the chain changes first.<ref name="Łubowicz">{{cite encyclopedia|year=2011|last=Łubowicz|first=Anna|title=Chain shifts|encyclopedia=The Blackwell Companion to Phonology|pages=1–19|doi=10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0073|isbn=9781444335262}}</ref> In the example above, the chain shift would be a pull chain if {{IPA|/i:/}} changed to {{IPA|/aɪ/}} first, opening up a space at the position of {{IPA|[i]}}, which {{IPA|/e:/}} then moved to fill. A '''push chain''' is a chain shift in which the phoneme at the "end" of the chain moves first: in this example, if {{IPA|/aː/}} moved toward {{IPA|[eː]}}, a "crowding" effect would be created and {{IPA|/e:/}} would thus move toward {{IPA|[i]}}, and so forth.<ref name="Łubowicz"/> It is not known which phonemes changed first during the Great Vowel Shift; many scholars believe the [[high vowel]]s such as {{IPA|/i:/}} started the shift, but some suggest that the [[low vowel]]s, such as {{IPA|/aː/}}, may have shifted first.<ref name="Winkler">{{cite book|last=Winkler|first=Elizabeth Grace|title=Understanding Language|location=London|publisher=Continuum|year=2007|page=187|isbn=978-0-8264-84826}}</ref>

==Examples==
{{Inline audio|section}}
During the Great Vowel Shift in the 15th and 16th centuries, all of the long vowels of Middle English, which correspond to [[tense vowel]]s in Modern English, shifted pronunciation. The changes can be summarized as follows:<ref name="Murray"/><ref name="Fromkin"/>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Great Vowel Shift
|-
! rowspan="2" | Front vowels
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|eː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close front unrounded vowel.ogg|i:}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|En-us-I.ogg|aɪ}}
|-
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Open-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|ɛ:}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close front unrounded vowel.ogg|i:}} ''or'' {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|eː}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | Back vowels
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Open-mid back rounded vowel.ogg|ɔː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close-mid back rounded vowel.ogg|oː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close back rounded vowel.ogg|uː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|En-us-ow.ogg|aʊ}}
|-
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Open front unrounded vowel.ogg|aː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|eː}}
|}

Most vowels shifted to a higher [[place of articulation]], so that the pronunciation of ''geese'' changed from {{IPA|/ɡeːs/}} to {{IPA|/ɡiːs/}} and ''broken'' from {{IPA|/brɔːken/}} to {{IPA|/broːkən/}}. The high vowels {{IPA|/iː/}} and {{IPA|/uː/}} became [[diphthongs]] (for example, ''mice'' changed from {{Audio-IPA|help=no|ME-mice.ogg|/miːs/}} to {{Audio-IPA|help=no|ModE-mice01.ogg|/maɪs/}}), and the low back vowel {{IPA|/aː/}} was [[Fronted (phonetics)|fronted]], causing ''name'' to change from {{Audio-IPA|help=no|ME-name.ogg|/naːmə/}} to {{Audio-IPA|help=no|ModE-name.ogg|/neːm/}}.<ref name="Fromkin"/>

The Great Vowel Shift occurred over centuries, and not all [[Variety (linguistics)|varieties]] of English were affected in the same ways. For example, some speakers in [[Scotland]] still pronounce ''house'' similarly to its sound in Middle English before the shift, as {{IPA|[hu(ː)s]}}.<ref name="Winkler"/>

A chain shift may affect only one [[regional dialect]] of a language, or it may begin in a particular regional dialect and then expand beyond the region in which it originated. A number of recent regional chain shifts have occurred in English. Perhaps the most well known is the [[Northern Cities Vowel Shift]], which is largely confined to the "[[Inland Northern American English|Inland North]]" region of the United States. Other examples in North America are the [[Western Pennsylvania English|Pittsburgh Vowel Shift]], the [[Southern American English|Southern Vowel Shift]] (in the [[Southern United States]]), and the [[Low-Back-Merger Shift]]. In England, the [[Cockney]] vowel shift among working-class Londoners is familiar from its prominence in plays such as [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'' (and the related musical ''[[My Fair Lady]]''):{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}
: {{IPA|iː}} → {{IPA|eɪ}} → {{IPA|aɪ}} → {{IPA|ɔɪ}} → {{IPA|oɪ}}

Many chain shifts are [[vowel shift]]s, because many sets of vowels are naturally arranged on a multi-value scale (e.g. [[vowel height]] or frontness). However, chain shifts can also occur in consonants. A famous example of such a shift is the well-known First Germanic Sound Shift or [[Grimm's Law]], in which the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] [[voice (phonetics)|voiceless]] [[stop consonant]]s became [[fricative]]s, the plain [[voiced]] stops became voiceless, and the [[breathy voice]]d stops became plain voiced:
: {{IPA|bʱ}} → {{IPA|b}} → {{IPA|p}} → {{IPA|f}}
: {{IPA|dʱ}} → {{IPA|d}} → {{IPA|t}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless dental fricative.ogg|θ}}
: {{IPA|ɡʱ}} → {{IPA|ɡ}} → {{IPA|k}} → {{IPA|h, x}}

Another is the [[High German consonant shift]] which separated [[Old High German]] from other [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic dialects]] (namely [[Old English]], [[Old Frisian]], [[Old Saxon]], and [[Old Low Franconian]]).
:{| class="wikitable"
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced alveolar plosive.ogg|d}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless alveolar plosive.ogg|t}} → {{IPA|ts}}, {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless alveolar sibilant.ogg|s}}
|-
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced velar stop.ogg|ɡ}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless velar plosive.ogg|k}} → {{IPA|kx}}, {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless velar fricative.ogg|x}}
|-
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced bilabial plosive.ogg|b}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless bilabial plosive.ogg|p}} → {{IPA|pf}}, {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless labiodental fricative.ogg|f}}
|}

Note that the rightmost development in the table is the oldest (drag chain). The degrees to which High German dialects have completed these changes vary vastly (see [[Rhenish fan]]).

The Romance languages to the north and west of central Italy (e.g. [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]] and various northern Italian languages) are known for a set of chain shifts collectively termed ''[[lenition]]'', which affected [[stop consonant]]s between vowels:{{cn|date=April 2022}}
: {{IPA|pp}} → {{IPA|p}} → {{IPA|b}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced bilabial fricative.ogg|β}}, {{IPA|v}}
: {{IPA|tt}} → {{IPA|t}} → {{IPA|d}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced dental fricative.ogg|ð}} (or vanishes)
: {{IPA|kk}} → {{IPA|k}} → {{IPA|ɡ}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced velar fricative.ogg|ɣ}}, {{IPA|j}} (or vanishes)
In this case, each sound became weaker (or more "lenited").

==Synchronic shifts==

It is also possible for chain shifts to occur synchronically, within the [[phonology]] of a language as it exists at a single point in time.<ref name="Kirchner">Kirchner, Robert. (1996). Synchronic chain shifts in Optimality Theory. ''Linguistic Inquiry'', ''27'', 341-350.</ref>

[[Nzebi language|Nzebi]] (or Njebi), a [[Bantu languages|Bantu language]] of [[Gabon]], has the following chain shift, triggered morphophonologically by certain tense/aspect suffixes:

{|
| {{IPA|a}} || → || {{IPA|ɛ}} || → || {{IPA|e}} || → || {{IPA|i}}
|-
|             ||     ||              ||     || {{IPA|ə}} || → || {{IPA|i}}
|-
|             ||     || {{IPA|ɔ}} || → || {{IPA|o}} || → || {{IPA|u}}
|}

Examples follow:<ref>Guthrie, Malcolm. (1968). Notes on Nzebi (Gabon). ''Journal of African Languages'', ''7'',101-129.</ref>

:{|
! Underlying form !! Chain-shifted form
|-
| {{IPA|sal}} "to work" || {{IPA|sal-i}} → {{IPA|sɛli}}
|-
| {{IPA|βɛɛd}} "to give" || {{IPA|βɛɛd-i}} → {{IPA|βeedi}}
|-
| {{IPA|bet}} "to carry" || {{IPA|bet-i}} → {{IPA|biti}}
|-
| {{IPA|bis}} "to refuse" || {{IPA|bis-i}} → {{IPA|bisi}}
|-
| {{IPA|kolən}} "to go down" || {{IPA|kolən-i}} → {{IPA|kulini}}
|-
| {{IPA|tɔɔd}} "to arrive" || {{IPA|tɔɔd-i}} → {{IPA|toodi}}
|-
| {{IPA|suɛm}} "to hide oneself" || {{IPA|suɛm-i}} → {{IPA|suemi}}
|}

Another example of a chain from Bedouin Hijazi Arabic involves vowel raising and deletion:<ref name="Kirchner" />

{|
| {{IPA|a}} || → || {{IPA|i}} || → || ''deletion''
|}

In nonfinal open syllables, {{IPA|/a/}} raises to {{IPA|/i/}} while {{IPA|/i/}} in the same position is deleted.

Synchronic chain shifts may be circular. An example of this is [[Amoy dialect|Xiamen tone]] or [[Taiwanese Hokkien|Taiwanese tone]] [[sandhi]]:<ref name="Kirchner" />{{rp|fn 348}}{{better source|date=February 2017|reason=This is just a passing mention in a footnote.}}

{|
| 53 || → || 44 || → || 22 || → || 21 || → || 53
|}

The contour tones are lowered to a lower tone, and the lowest tone (21) circles back to the highest tone (53).

Synchronic chain shifts are an example of the theoretical problem of [[phonological opacity]]. Although easily accounted for in a derivational rule-based phonology, its analysis in standard parallel [[Optimality Theory]] is problematic.<ref name="Kirchner" />

==See also==
* [[Isogloss]]
* [[Sound change]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Historical linguistics]]
[[Category:Phonology]]
[[Category:Sound changes]]