Re: Some Sound Changes

Quoting Rob Haden <magwich78@...>:

> Initially, /hV/ doesn't change, but medial /h/ is lost with compensatory
> lengthening.
This is reasonable.  By medial, do you mean that it's intervocalic,
or that it's in the coda of the syllable? Compensatory lengthening
specifically affects codas of syllables, not just any postvocalic /h/.

> How about these possible changes:
>
> /x/ > /q/
It's a little odd, because it changes *two* features:  [+continuant] >
[-continuant], and [-low] to [+low].  What's motivating it becoming
a stop? Is it conditioned at all, such as by occuring before a stop?

> /hh/ > /x/ (where /hh/ is a voiceless pharyngal fricative)
Not all that strange:  voiceless pharyngeal fricatives are
marked segments, and what's more are acoustically similar to
/x/ in a number of ways.

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Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
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