French phonology diverged significantly from other Romance languages due to substrate influences
the verdict
CONTESTED PARTIAL
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the weight of evidence
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Retrieved sources contain conflicting or partial evidence regarding external language influences on the evolution of French, with some pointing to substrate effects in related historical transitions while others dispute superstrate phonological impacts, leaving the specific claim about phonological divergence via substrate influences only partially supported or contested.
We present and analyze the results of a connectionist simulation which modeled the reanalysis of the Latin gender system in its transition to Old French. The network reanalysis was based solely on formal cues (word endings and analogy with other words) and on frequency. The results are in accordance with the historical data, and certain errors in simulations are also amenable to principled explanations. Simulations improve dramatically when the networks incorporate information about the Celtic substrate which presumably interfered with gender assignment in Gallo-Romance. This finding has a bearing on issues of gender assignment and processing in bilinguals. Simulations also improve with the introduction of more elaborate recurrent networks, which suggests implications for future connectionist modeling. In particular, the results could be applied to the modeling of gender change in other Romance languages and to the modeling of comparative Romance gender systems. The method proposed here would be advantageous for such simulations since it allows the modeler to take into account a rich variety of facts reflecting actual linguistic history.
WALS Online - Reference Polinsky and van Everbroeck 2003 Home Features Chapters Languages References Authors Polinsky and van Everbroeck 2003 Text BibTeX Polinsky, Maria & Ezra van Everbroeck. 2003. Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French. Language 79. 356-390. @article{Polinsky-and-van-Everbroeck-2003, author = {Polinsky, Maria and van Everbroeck, Ezra}, journal = {Language}, pages = {356-390}, title = {Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French}, volume = {79}, year = {2003} } Chapters Systems of Gender Assignment ×
The traditional idea that in Early French, the Frankish superstrate had a major influence on the phonology is mistaken. Facts from Old Frankish itself show that this cannot have been the case. In addition, the phonetic concept on which the idea is based, i.e. the distinction between ‘expiratory’ and ‘melodic’ languages, is outdated and invalid. The facts for which the Frankish influence was invoked find a much more satisfactory explanation if one considers the evolution of the entire prosodic system of the language. The distinction between syllable and word languages, as proposed by Auer & Uhmann (1988), provides a fruitful framework for this.
Autonomous typological prosodic evolution versus the Germanic superstrate in diachronic French phonology Autonomous typological prosodic evolution versus the Germanic superstrate in diachronic French phonology Publication Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory Record type Book chapter Published 19 November 2009 Authors Roland G. Noske DOI https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.1.12nos The publisher of this work supports multiple resolution .
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