Re: Lenition

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> As for the change unvoiced fricative -> unvoiced stop, I
> cannot even conceive that you call that "softening"! It's such hardening that I
> can't even imagine a single environment where it would be happening!!
The change [T] > [t] in most of the Germanic languages comes to mind.

The change [j] > [g] is described as "sharpening" in Old Norse, IIRC.

> I still really don't understand by what logic English speakers call voiced
> sounds "harder" than unvoiced sounds. I was extremely surprised the first time
> I heard such a claim, and I still cannot imagine what it can mean.
The only hard/soft terminology I am familiar with in vernacular speech
about English is hard=stop, soft=affricate, as in the so-called hard and
soft pronunciations of "c" and "g".

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

Reply