In studying the nature of language, a major goal of linguistics research is to establish patterns with general and ubiquitous application across languages of the world, in other words to determine ‘language universals’. The current research assumes a different perspective and turns attention to a deviation from a recognised pattern, in order to record it as speech data and examine how it becomes possible.
One well-known and commonly studied pattern, termed as ‘contextual neutralisation’, is the loss of a certain feature of a sound when that sound occurs in a particular position in the word. To exemplify with Balochi, a language of Iranian family spoken in West Asia: The verb ʤəkh- ‘pause, wait’ forms present in ʤəkhi, continuous in ʤəkhəɣɑ, but past in ʤəkθ, where the sound kh loses its feature of puff of air, or the ‘aspiration’, when it occurs before a consonant to change into k. This neutralisation is a widely noted outcome in the study of sound patterns in world languages. However, Balochi also shows an alternative and unusual outcome in the past, i.e. ʤɦəkθ, in which that feature re-appears on a preceding sound in the word.
This dissertation presents an account of the documentation of this rare alternative, dubbed here transposition of aspiration, using experimental methods: How the output of /ʤəkh-θ/ was obtained from speakers of Balochi; how this output was analysed using instrumental techniques of speech analysis; how this output was perceived by listeners.
Ali Hussain successfully defended his thesis on 7 May 2026.
Trial lecture
Designated topic: Typology and sound change in the domain of laryngeal features.
Evaluation committee
- Professor Martin Joachim Kümmel, Friedrich Schiller-Universität Jena (first opponent)
- Professor Pavel Iosad, University of Edinburgh (second opponent)
- Professor Natalia Kartushina, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
Supervisors
- Professor Sverre Stausland Johnsen, University of Oslo
- Professor Timo Roettger, University of Oslo