Re: Tendencies of Sound Changes?

Arthaey Angosii wrote:
> Emaelivpeith Carsten Becker:
> > I know that in the realms of sound changes,
> > basically everything is possible, but I wanted to ask if
> > there are more rules like that?
>
> Geoff from the ZBB has a collection of sound changes up on his website:
>
>     http://www.cix.co.uk/~morven/lang/soundchanges.html
>
> It lists types of sound changes, with some examples, but it doesn't
> say which is more likely to happen than another.
>
> I too would like such a ranking or hierarchy of probability.
>
That's an interesting and pretty complete list. But I don't think
likeliness/ranking/hierarchy is possible. It's even risky to say "X is not a
_possible_ sound change" because someone is almost sure to come up with an
example...