In phonology, a chain shift is a phenomenon in which several sounds move stepwise along a phonetic scale. The sounds involved in a chain shift can be ordered into a "chain" in such a way that, after the change is complete, each phoneme ends up sounding like what the phoneme before it in the chain sounded like before the change. The rules making up a chain shift are said to be in counterfeeding order.
For example, if in some language the three vowel phonemes /æ ɛ e/ undergo a change such that /e/ becomes /i/, /ɛ/ becomes /e/, and /æ/ becomes /ɛ/, those three changes would constitute a chain shift and could be summarized as
- æ → ɛ → e → i
A drag chain or pull chain is a chain shift in which the phoneme at the "leading" edge of the chain changes first. In this example, the chain shift would be a pull chain if /e/ changed to /i/ first, opening up a space at the position of which /ɛ/ then moved to fill. A push chain is a chain shift in which the phoneme at the "end" of the chain moves first: in this example, if /æ/ moved toward, creating a "crowding" effect and causing /ɛ/ to move toward, and so forth.
Read more about Chain Shift: Diachronic Shifts, Synchronic Shifts
Famous quotes containing the words chain and/or shift:
“By this unprincipled facility of changing the state as often, and as much, and in as many ways as there are floating fancies or fashions, the whole chain and continuity of the commonwealth would be broken. No one generation could link with the other. Men would become little better than the flies of a summer.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in travelling in a stage- coach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.”
—Washington Irving (1783–1859)