Re: Historical realism and prenasalized stops

Josh wrote:

<<1. *d > nd
2. *t > d
3. *d > D / V_V
4. *t_h > t
5. *nd > d / _V{stressed}>>

I would've expected *t > t_h, and *d > t, not the other way around, but I
can't speak for universals.   The *nd > d sounds natural enough to me (i.e.,
imagining the history of the sound change), but I've never seen any
historical stuff on prenasalized stops.   I actually just started a language
with prenasalized stops, and it usually causes the previous vowel to become
nasal, so they rarely show up as an actual prenasalized stop (only in initial
position).   And, since it's a pitch-accent language, stress doesn't really
affect things as much as in a language that has no grammatical tone.
(Right?)

Also, are these changes ordered?   In other words, you have: /ve.'dai/ and
/'a.ve.ndu/.   The /d/ in /ve.'dai/ is historically a prenasalized stop, so
is it realized as [d] or [D], since it's between two vowels?   In other
words, did the *d > D / V_V change happen before or after the *nd > d /
_V[+stress]?   Or could the /d/ > [D] / V_V be a synchronic sound change
rather than diachronic?

-David

"imDeziZejDekp2wilDez ZejDekkinel..."
"You can celebrate anything you want..."
               -John Lennon

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