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Re: Word-initial sound changes

From:dirk elzinga <dirk.elzinga@...>
Date:Thursday, January 27, 2000, 21:36
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