Evolutionary phonology

Why do the world's languages share so many sound patterns? Juliette Blevins argues that most of them come from ordinary, phonetically grounded changes in how speech is produced and heard over time, rather than from abstract rules fixed in advance. She builds a case that the sound systems speakers use today are shaped by the history of their pronunciation.

The book works through the links between phonetics, historical linguistics and language change, showing how common changes can accumulate into the patterns found in many languages. It sets out a framework for explaining phonological structure through the way sounds shift across generations of speakers.

Written for linguists, the book is aimed at researchers and advanced students working in phonology, phonetics and historical linguistics who want to understand how sound patterns arise and change.