An Extended Synergetic Model of Language Phonology

Abstract

This paper extends the analysis originally performed by the author in 2014, by developing a model based on the principles of the so-called “synergetic linguistics approach”. This model tries to explain the occurrence of several phonological characteristics of languages as a process of maximization of a welfare function, which considers both the ease of decoding language expressions and the effort to produce those expressions. The main changes in this paper are the use of a larger and more balanced sample of 150 languages, the inclusion of new phonological variables, and the explicit consideration of phylogenetic, geographic and demographic factors. The analysis is carried out using seemingly unrelated regressions for a system of equations that relate six characteristics of languages: (1) number of consonant phonemes, (2) vowel qualities, (3) distinctive tones, (4) use of stress, (5) vowel length and (6) vowel nasalization, identifying those equations as first-order conditions in a welfare maximization problem. The main finding is that the key phonological variable seems to be the number of vowel qualities in a language, which is positively correlated with the number of consonants and the use of vowel length, and negatively correlated with vowel nasalization. Other important determinants seem to be the use of contrasting vowel length, and the existence of stress distinctions.

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