Re: A sound change question...

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 16:17:32 -0400 "E. Notagain" <ecg321@...> writes:
> This has probably been asked before, but what is /w/ most likely to
> turn into?
> -- Erin Notagain --
-

Well, here are some realworld /w/ shifts that i've heard of:

/w/ to /j/ (Northwest Semitic, including Hebrew), especially at the
beginning of a word
/w/ to /v/ (Hebrew as well as some Romance languages)
/w/ to nothing (some Ancient Greek dialects)
/w/ to /u/ (some Spanish dialects), de-diphthonging diphthongs
/w/ to /gw/ (some spanish dialects, Germanic borrowings into Romance)

Some other /w/ shifts that seem (at least to me) possible, but i can't
think of any natlang examples:

/w/ to |voiceless W|
/w/ to /B/ (bilabial voiced fricative)
/w/ to bilabial approximant (/w/ without the velar part)
/w/ to velar approximant (/w/ without the labial part)
/w/ to /b/
/w/ to rounding on adjacent sounds, i.e. /...wb.../ to /...b<w>.../, /Mw/
to /u/, etc.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "...in your house i long to be / room by room patiently
  i'll wait for you there / like a stone
  i'll wait for you there / alone..."
     ~ 'like a stone' by audioslave

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