earticle

영어

Traditional accounts of the Old English breaking suggest that breaking is epenthesis of a protective back vowel and that the segments before which this epenthesis takes place are specified as [+back]. This paper aims to inquire into the nature of the epenthesis and explain the causes of breaking and subsequent sound changes within the framework of the Site-Articulator model and the Optimality Theory. I argue that the triggering element of the epenthesis is the velarization of the coda consonants, which requires the insertion of a floating labial constriction. It will be shown that the seemingly complicated and confusing sound changes are due to the interactions of several universal constraints. I also make a critical review of a couple of previous studies on the Old English breaking and try to show how my analysis overcomes some of the empirical and theoretical problems they potentially face.