Re: mutation and rinya

Daniel Andreasson wrote:
> What exactly is the difference between lenition, soft mutation,
> nasal mutation (the Pinocchio syndrome :) and any other sort
> of mutation?
Well, lenition is a "weakening" of the segment, usually something like
stop --> fricative --> approximate (I think), so that t --> s would be
lenition.  I think that it also may include voicing, so that t --> d
would also fall in that.  I think that soft mutation is just another
name for lenition.  Nasal mutation is mutation that's caused by a nasal
consonant (altho the consonant may be gone now).  For instance ...m p...
becoming ...m b..., or ...m b... becoming ...m m...

> I'm feeling somewhat confused here. Someone feel like helping
> me out, please?
Well, here's an example from Irish (phonemic, not orthographic):

Normal  Lenition  Eclipsed
p       f         b
t       h         d
k       x         g
b       v         m
d       G         n
g       G         N
f       [silent]  v
m       v
s       h

But, I don't know what the origins were of these mutations.

> Because then uni starts and taking both
> Linguistics 102 and The history of the nordic languages 101
Hmm, I see your conlang taking a decidedly Nordic direction.  :-)

--
"[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde haue
hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
William Caxton
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