On the nature of the phonetic-phonologic change: the cases of /nj/ and /lj/

Abstract

Phonetic change has been described for almost a century though from an articulatory perspective and only taking into account written documents. Recently, new theories have claimed that diachronic change could be explained throughout synchronic variation phenomena, related to processes of hipo (and hyper)articulation which lead to co-articulation. One of them is Evolutionary Phonology (Blevins 2004), even if it does not give satisfactory justification for the spread of newest phonetic solutions. In this paper, this kind of theories are used to enlighten the evolution of two particular contexts: /nj/ and /lj/, which resulted in the phonologization of the phonemes // and // in early Spanish.

Keywords

• cambio fonético-fonológico
• fonética histórica
• gramática histórica
• palatalización de /nj/ y /lj/.