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Re: Word-initial sound changes

From:<raccoon@...>
Date:Thursday, January 27, 2000, 22:11
> -----Original Message----- > From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU]On > Behalf Of dirk elzinga > Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2000 3:36 PM > To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU > Subject: 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.
> 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.
I guess I didn't mean lenition, actually. I think I was originally just thinking of lenition as an example of sound change. To me, lenition means a kind of 'softening' of consonants that makes them easier to pronounce. But I thought the Celtic mutations did come from phonological factors. Certainly not factors present now (synchronic) but possibly factors which were once present (diachronic). No? Eric Christopherson raccoon@elknet.net