Deciding the status of controversial phonemes using frequency distributions; an application to semiconsonants in Spanish

TL;DR

This paper introduces a frequency distribution-based method to determine the phonemic status of controversial sounds, applying it to Spanish semiconsonants, and finds evidence supporting their distinction as separate phonemes.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, complexity-inspired approach using frequency distributions to decide phoneme status, demonstrated on Spanish semiconsonants.

Findings

Spanish /w/ should be considered a separate phoneme from /u/

Spanish /j/ should be considered a separate phoneme from /i/

Frequency versus rank graph smoothness correlates with phoneme status

Abstract

Exploiting the fact that natural languages are complex systems, the present exploratory article proposes a direct method based on frequency distributions that may be useful when making a decision on the status of problematic phonemes, an open problem in linguistics. The main notion is that natural languages, which can be considered from a complex outlook as information processing machines, and which somehow manage to set appropriate levels of redundancy, already "made the choice" whether a linguistic unit is a phoneme or not, and this would be reflected in a greater smoothness in a frequency versus rank graph. For the particular case we chose to study, we conclude that it is reasonable to consider the Spanish semiconsonant /w/ as a separate phoneme from its vowel counterpart /u/, on the one hand, and possibly also the semiconsonant /j/ as a separate phoneme from its vowel counterpart /i/, on the other. As language has been so central a topic in the study of complexity, this discussion grants us, in addition, an opportunity to gain insight into emerging properties in the broader complex systems debate.