Re: mutation and rinya

Daniel Andreasson <noldo@...> wrote:

> Yes. That's exactly what I'm trying to get an answer to. What are the
> underlying reasons for the mutations?
> Where's Ray Brown at? He's usually brilliant at this kind of stuff.
I'm not Ray but maybe I can help. With examples:

Sindarin has several mutation types. According to Ardalambion's survey
of the language, the underlying plural definite article _in_ causes
mutation of the following word.

*in bair > i mbair
*in dengin > i ndengin
*in giliath > i ngiliath

The *asterisked forms must have occurred earlier in the language, but
now the article just causes nasal mutation on voiced stops.

*in tiw > i thiw
*in cirth > i chirth
*in periannath > i pheriannath

Here there's a 'spirant mutation' (unvoiced stop to fricative).
The reason for this is that /in tiw/ becomes /it'tiw/ by assimilation,
and the same for the others: /n/ + unvoiced stop > geminated stop.
Then the geminated stop, by a common change rule, becomes a fricative
(maybe the process is geminated > aspirated > affricate > fricative?).

I assume the mutations in Celtic languages, which were the inspiration
for Sindarin, follow similar patterns. What I would like to know is
*what* exactly these patterns were, how much time ago, etc. :)


--Pablo Flores