Anticipatory Coarticulation of Labialized Velars as a Precursor to Sound Change

Phonetic evidence is presented to contribute to a possible explanation of how historical coronalization of labialized velars in front vowel environments may take place. Sound changes of labialized velar /kw/ to coronal /t/ before front vowels /i, e/ are reconstructed for the development of Greek from Indo-European. Philological accounts tend to propose progressive fronting/palatalization preceding or concurrent with loss of secondary labialization of the velar. Phonological accounts suggest constraints against velar fronting in combination with secondary labialization of velars. This paper presents acoustic evidence of synchronic variation in production amongst contemporary speakers of Zapotec, a language which also features labialized velars in its stop inventory, for coarticulatory fronting of labialized velars in front vowel environments.