A received wisdom in modern linguistic theories is that the relationships between sounds
and meanings are generally arbitrary. However, there is a growing body of evidence …

Hidden Generalizations is the first monograph devoted exclusively to the problem of
phonological opacity. Opacity arises when the conditions for or results of an active …

Two factors have been proposed as the main determinants of phonological typology:
channel bias, phonetically systematic errors in transmission, and analytic bias, cognitive …

An overview of Evolutionary Phonology 1.1. Explaining sound patterns Phonology is the
study of sound patterns of the world's languages. In all spoken languages, we find sound …

This paper examines vowel harmony initiated by a weak trigger. Height harmony in Veneto
Italian dialects, wherein a post-tonic high vowel triggers raising of preceding mid vowels …

Linguists researching the sounds of languages do not just study lists of sounds but seek to
discover generalizations about sound patterns by grouping them into categories. They study …

Within the framework of optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004), Steriade (2001a, b)
proposes the P-map hypothesis, whose fundamental tenet is that the rankings of faithfulness …

This article presents an overview of several significant aspects of the phonology of Uyghur
(ISO: uig; pronounced [ʊjˈʁʊr]; Turkic: China). In addition to summarising previous …

This paper reconciles the standpoint that language users do not aim at improving their
sound systems with the observation that languages seem to improve their sound systems. If …

This paper offers a novel account of a familiar typological observation, namely the tendency
of phonological inventories to consist of segments that are dispersed through the available …