Volume 21, Winter 1999
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Browsing Volume 21, Winter 1999 by Subject "Linguistic change"
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- ItemOpen AccessCalgary Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 21, Winter 1999(University of Calgary, 1999-01) Atkey, Susan; Belland, Jana; Rowsell, Lorna V; Strickland, MelanieThe editors of, this volume, Susan Atkey, Jana Belland, Melanie Strickland and Lorna Rowsell are pleased to present the twenty-first issue of the Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics published by the department of Linguistics at the University of Calgary. The papers contained in this volume represent works in progress and as such should not be considered in any way final or definitive.
- ItemOpen AccessWhat's all the fuss about 16 words? A new approach to Holtzman's Law*(University of Calgary, 1999-01) Smith, Laura CatharineThis paper provides a unified analysis for Holtzmann's Law or the Germanic Verscharfung (hereafter, GV). This Germanic phenomenon is usually described as the strengthening of the PIE glides +i and +u to Gothic and and Old Norse and respectively. In the present work, I posit plausible sound changes based on the assumption that laryngeals were extant in early Germanic when the accent was still mobile. Furthermore, I contend that the laryngeals rather than glides underwent GV strengthening. The motivation for sound changes, as I assert, can be explained by the preference laws of syllable structure. The analysis provided herein also accounts for parallel phonological developments of GV and non-GV forms from common PIE roots, e.g. ON snūa 'to turn' versus ON snugga 'to look askance'. Finally, the analysis offers an explanation for the existence of GV reflexes in West Germanic.