Re: Word-initial sound changes

On Thu, 27 Jan 2000, John Cowan wrote:

> raccoon@ELKNET.NET wrote:
>
> > I know that in languages I'm familiar with that use some form of lenition
> > (voicing or fricativization, or both), lenition doesn't occur
> > word-initially. My question is, how unreasonable would it be for lenition to
> > occur word (and phrase)-initially too?
>
> Totally reasonable, and what the Celtic languages (and their conlang
> relatives) do.
Reasonable, yes, but not as lenition. Lenition has a phonetic/
phonological trigger; what Celtic has is mutation, which is
triggered by the morphology and has very little to do with
phonetics/phonology at this point in their histories. Not
knowing how consonant alternations play out in Eric's language,
I can't say if it is lenition or not.

Perhaps it is just splitting hairs, but I have always preferred
to use the term 'lenition' to refer to consonant alternations
which are  triggered by phonetics/phonology, and reserve the
term 'mutation' for consonant alternations which mark
morphological categories. It's a useful distinction to make.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu