Lexical diffusion is the hypothesis that a sound change is an abrupt change that spreads gradually across the words in a language to which it is applicable.[1]
It contrasts with the Neogrammarian view that a sound change results from phonetically-conditioned articulatory drift acting uniformly on all applicable words, which implies that sound changes are regular, with exceptions attributed to analogy and dialect borrowing.
Similar views were expressed by Romance dialectologists in the late 19th century but were reformulated and renamed by William Wang and coworkers studying varieties of Chinese in the 1960s and the 1970s.
William Labov found evidence for both processes but argued that they operate at different levels.
Lexicaldiffusion is the hypothesis that a sound change is an abrupt change that spreads gradually across the words in a language to which it is applicable...
Rajyashree (1994). Goparaju Sambasiva Rao (ed.). Language Change: LexicalDiffusion and Literacy. Academic Foundation. pp. 45–58. ISBN 978-81-7188-057-7...
Wittmann, Henri (2001). "CreoList debate, parts I-VI, appendixes 1-9". Lexicaldiffusion and the glottogenetics of creole French. The Linguist List. Eastern...
language families of the Americas, and use this word as a case study of lexicaldiffusion due to trade and contact. In California, identical roots for ‘dog’...
60. ISBN 978-3-447-04455-4. Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju. "Areal and LexicalDiffusion of Sound Change: Evidence from Dravidian". "Early Telugu Inscriptions...
questioned this hypothesis from two perspectives. First, adherents of lexicaldiffusion (where a sound change affects only a few words at first and then gradually...
Rajyashree (1994). Goparaju Sambasiva Rao (ed.). Language Change: LexicalDiffusion and Literacy. Academic Foundation. pp. 45–58. ISBN 978-81-7188-057-7...
(1992). Sound Change in Progress: a study of phonological change and lexicaldiffusion, with reference to glottalization and r-loss in the speech of some...
l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières 1, 1972. [4] Wittmann, Henri. « Lexicaldiffusion and the glottogenetics of creole French. » CreoList debate, parts...
Arnhem Land, Australia: Morphosyntactic convergence and massive lexicaldiffusion in the Yuulgnu languages Ritharngnu, Dhayʔyi, and others and the “Prefixing”...
10 December 2014. Rao, Goparaju Sambasiva (1994). Language Change: LexicalDiffusion and Literacy. Academic Foundation. pp. 48 and 49. ISBN 9788171880577...
areal diffusion, when features are adopted by contiguous languages over a geographical area. The borrowing may be phonological, morphological or lexical. A...
languages. Berlin: de Gruyter. pp. 823–836. Joseph, Brian D. (2012). "Lexicaldiffusion and the regular transmission of language chang in its sociohistorical...
colaphus > golpe and cattus > gato but not in canna > caña. See also lexicaldiffusion. Sound change is inevitable: All languages vary from place to place...
Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivières.[3] Wittmann, Henri (2001). "Lexicaldiffusion and the glottogenetics of creole French." CreoList debate, parts I-VI...
different vowel used in the preterite singular and past participle. Lexicaldiffusion Realizational morphology "Paradigm". SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms...
Directorate of Languages. Rao, Goparaju Sambasiva (1994). Language Change: LexicalDiffusion and Literacy. Academic Foundation. pp. 48 and 49. ISBN 9788171880577...
distinction) the complete merger of the two lexical sets under /æɪ/ – the completion of a slow process of lexicaldiffusion." Walters (2001) reports the survival...
of words in the speech of one locality, and gradually extended by lexicaldiffusion to all words with the same phonological pattern, and then over a longer...
kill'), thus /i/ (<*i) does occur in pharyngeal words as well. Through lexicaldiffusion, /i/ <*e is to be observed in some words such as /in/ < *ene ‘this’...
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