Re: Phonological questions, bunch 2

John Vertical wrote:

> An entirely different question which has also bothered me lately
> concerns long-term results of sound change: where do complex stop
> systems come from? Is allophonical development from other stops and
> stop clusters the only option, or is creation of new stop phonemes
> from non-stops attested anywhere?
> (And since stops are often lenited into fricatives, would the first
> choice imply that over a long time enough, a language's all stops
> could have decayed into continuants?)
Fortition occurs in places, and also epenthetic stop insertion (see Lat.
|homine| > Sp. |hombre|). I wouldn't be surprised by a sound change
where clusters required a stop, so changes like /sl/ > /tl/ occur.


--
The "Million Style Manual" is a set of sixty-four jade stones marked
with pieces of Chinese characters. It expresses the kung fu of the void,
as taught by P'an Ku's axe.

Shreyas Sampat
http://njyar.blogspot.com