Re: Mutations of [k]

Peeter Bleecli ƿraet:
> [k] seems to have mutated into [s] or [t_S] quite frequently in Western
> European languages. Does anyone know what processes gave rise to this?
Say _kit_ and _cot_ (I think they should work for just about every
English dialect). Pay attention to where you tongue touches the back of
your mouth when you say the 'k' and the 'c'. You should notice that the
/k/ of _kit_ is higher up than the one of _cot_. For whatever reason,
this eventually gets pronunced so much further front that it becomes
[c], which then proceeds to various other sounds such as [tS] (where Old
English and Italian stop), [ts] or [tT]. Then you de-affricativise the
[ts] and [tT] and get the [s] and [T] of French and Spanish Spanish (I
think).

And in Western Europe, it mostly happened to Romance languages and Old
English, I think. I'm pretty sure Celtic and Dutch and German and such
did no such thing. (But Swedish etc. did, but they're Northern European,
aren't they.)

I think the process is called palatisation, but that's a pretty generic
term applied to a lot of things that happen because of the articulation
of front vowels. (So the process of generating a series of palatised
consonants would be called this, as would the [t]/[s] > [tS]/[S] / _i,j
change in Japanese (or are they [c] and [C]?).)

--
Tristan                  <kesuari@...>

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