Re: sound change question

Sylvia Sotomayor wrote:
> That is possible, though I'm getting rid of [m], too. [w] will stay,
> however. I'm thinking of turning [l] or maybe [r] into something else
> as well. Any ideas?
>
I'm not sure it's attested in any natlang (and no reason why not in a
conlang ;-))), but m > w seems reasonable.  If the closure at the lips is
relaxed, you'd get a nasalized w, which could then easily merge; or perhaps
your /w/ phoneme is a little nasalized anyway, subphonemically??  Another
possibility:  /m/ via [w~] > hw, xw, Nw or kw (thus merger with your p > kw
or whatever, if you decide on that).

/l/ and /r/ can go all over the map. Some possibilities:
1. merger to a single rhotic or lateral, or even /n/
2. palatalized l > ly > y [j]
3. velarized l > velar approximant
All the above are attested in various Malayo-Pol. languages.  And Tagalog
has some irreg. *l > /h/ too.
4. Fricative-- > S or Z
5. Devoicing, as has been suggested.
6. Conditioned changes--e.g. In Kash, in word-final and compounding, /r/ can
> [t], /l/ > [n] or older [t]
6a. Sequences of l/r....l/r  or nasal...l/r ~l/r...nas. (esp. if the nasal
is /n/) frequently undergo assimilation/dissimilation of one sort or
another.

Or any combination of the above.

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