The Initiation of Sound Change: Perception, production, and social factors: 323

[T]he contributions put forward powerful arguments, almost all of which are backed by innovative empirical studies. The significance of these arguments shines through due to the care the authors take to situate their work within the relevant broader scholarship. […] As a result of these efforts, the contributions speak to specialists within the particular subfields as well as to linguists working in other areas. — Matthew J. Gordon, University of Missouri, on Linguist List Vol. 23-3334 (2013)

The study of sound change has a venerable history, dating from the first half of the 19th century, and can be said to have put linguistics on a solid footing as a scientific enterprise. Yet many controversies have remained over the years, making this area still one of the liveliest domains of investigation in historical linguistics and in phonology and phonetics more generally. The present volume adds to the discussion in important and meaningful ways with papers by significant thinkers who insightfully tie the phonetic, the phonological, and the diachronic together, yielding impressive results that draw on the latest theoretical, typological, historical, and experimental approaches — Brian D. Joseph, The Ohio State University