Re: Sound Change Susceptibility

David Peterson wrote:
> *nw -> Nw is quite common (though it could quite possibly become mw),
Hmmm ... an interesting possibility for dialectal variations could be
dialect 1: /nw/ -> /mw/ -> /m/, dialect 2: /nw/ -> /Nw/ -> /N/, thus the
two dialects would have /N/:/m/

In fact, maybe I'll borrow that for some dialects of Uatakassi.  :-)
The standard has /nw/ -> /m/, but some dialects could have /nw/ -> /N/.
It would also make for an interesting orthography, in that the same
symbol would be used for /nu/ and for /N/  :-)

(The Standard has [Ni] as a realization of /ngi/ in certain contexts,
arguably a slight phonemic distinction, since [Ngi] can also occur)

> However, a question to ponder might
> be why *N so easily becomes [n].
Velars in general tend to be subject to changes.  Japanese, for example,
had /ki/, /gi/ -> /i/ under certain circumstances (I don't know exactly
what circumstances), e.g., kakita -> kaita.  They'll also often become
other sounds, especially /g/, e.g., /g/ -> /G/ (and thence sometimes ->
/x/), /g/ -> /N/, /ki/ -> /tSi/, etc.

There's also a tendency in many languages to avoid /N/ word-intially,
even if it's permitted elsewhere.  Again, in Japanese, [N] is in free
variation with [g] in non-word-initial position, but word-initially,
only [g] can occur.

An interesting idea: /g/ -> /N/ -> /n/.  If the language has a voicing
rule, then you'd have a /k/:/n/ alternation.  :-)

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42