Download or read book The Historical Phonology of Vowel Length (RLE Linguistics C: Applied Linguistics) written by Brent de Chene and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Data from a variety of languages are offered in support of the claim that although there are several processes by which languages commonly add to an already existing stock of long vowels, there is only one mechanism by which a language without a distinction of vocalic length commonly introduces such a distinction. This mechanism is the coalescence of vowel sequences, typically after loss of intervocalic consonants. This book examines vowels lengths, their differences and their effects on language.