Overview of External Sandhi in Language

Sandhi: An Overview

Sandhi is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in natural language, often found in the interaction between words or syllables. It involves the assimilation, or blending, of sounds, which can result in the creation of new phonetic forms. This article will focus on external sandhi, a subtopic that deals with the rules and processes operating between sentences.

External Sandhi in Indo-European Languages

External sandhi in Indo-European languages refers to the assimilation of sounds in word-initial and word-final positions. In these languages, the first word in a sentence often undergoes a series of changes depending on the phonetic characteristics of the following word. For example, in Sanskrit, word final nasals may be assimilated by the following word's initial nasal, resulting in a deviation from the expected stem or word form.

External Sandhi in Korean

In Korean, external sandhi can be observed in the form of nasal assimilation and gestural overlap at word boundaries. This phenomenon is particularly relevant in the context of second language acquisition, as it may pose challenges for learners who are trying to distinguish between different words and phrases.

The Role of Syllable Structure in External Sandhi

The role of syllable structure in external sandhi is an important aspect of this phenomenon. A pre-vocalic connected speech context is said to enable the resyllabification of word-final consonants into an onset, thus conditioning alternations. This suggests that syllable structure plays a crucial role in determining the occurrence and distribution of external sandhi.

External Sandhi and Syntactic Treebanking

External sandhi has implications for the syntactic annotation of sentences in languages with a high degree of morphological structure, such as Telugu, an Indian language with agglutinative morphology. In these languages, the presence of external sandhi can affect the interpretation of word boundaries and the resulting syntactic tree. This highlights the importance of understanding and accounting for external sandhi in the development of syntactic treebanks and other linguistic resources.

In conclusion, external sandhi is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that plays a significant role in the phonetic and syntactic structure of various languages. By understanding the rules and processes governing external sandhi, we can gain valuable insights into the workings of the human language and the challenges faced by learners in acquiring and processing these languages.