HistLing: Sally Thomason on sound suppression and sound change

Sally Thomason on sound suppression an sound change

Sally Thomason will lead a discussion of SOUND SUPPRESSION AND SOUND CHANGE.  Sound suppression is one type of deliberate change -- or rather,  maybe not always conscious, but at least clearly motivated by social factors that stigmatize particular sounds -- and there is evidence that it can lead to permanent sound changes in a language.   Definite and probable examples have been reported from several Bantu languages, Piraha, Tsou, Teotepeque Pipil, Mandaya, Lubuagan Kalinga,  and a few other languages; the hope is that more examples will emerge from our discussion.