Re: Tendencies of Sound Changes?

It is both: in many languages -- i.e. most Germanic
languages other than Dutch -- voiced tops and voiced
fricatives next to voiceless stops and voiceless
fricatives devoice, while in other -- very many --
languages voiceless stops and voiceless fricatives
next to (and especially between) voiced sounds
become voiced.  In Slavic languages a stop or fricative
changes to agree in voicing/devoicing with a following
stop or fricative.  Something similar goes on in Romance
and probably many other languages as well.

Aidan Grey skrev:
> It IS the opposite - cf Spanish, English (American 'water'), Welsh....
>
> */Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>/* wrote:
>
>     Quoting Carsten Becker :
>
>      > Hello,
>      >
>      > Some time ago, I saw someone here mentioning that it's more
>      > likely for a voiced stop to devoice than for a unvoiced stop
>      > to voice.
>
>     Really? I would have thought exactly the opposite ...
>
>     Andreas
>
>      > 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? I already know that stops
>      > tend to be come affricates tend to become fricatives etc.
>      > and that this mechanism also works the other way round.
>      >
>
>
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--
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

    "Maybe" is a strange word.  When mum or dad says it
    it means "yes", but when my big brothers say it it
    means "no"!

                            (Philip Jonsson jr, age 7)