Mechanisms of Linguistic Change AThe changes that have caused the most disagreement are those in pronunciation. We have various sources of evidence for the pronunciations of earlier times, such as thespellings, the treatment of words borrowed from other languages or borrowed by them, the description...
which is a very common kind of change. Assimilation is the changing of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one. For example, the word scant was once skamt, but the /m/ has been changed to /n/ under
CIt is also possible that fashion plays a part in the process of change. It certainly plays a part in the spread of change: one person imitates another, and people with the most prestige are most likely to be imitated, so that a change that takes place in one social group may be imita...
A. Y. Aikhenvald (2006) Reflections on language contact, areal diffusion, and mechanisms of linguistic change. In: B. Caron and P. Zima, (eds.) Sprachbund in the West African Sahel (Paris: Peeters), pp. 23-36.Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2006b. Reflections on language contact, areal ...