Re: Palatization and Lenition etc

Chris Bates wrote:

>
> I think this is how lenition started in welsh, as simple phonological
> conditioning that later became grammatical as well (thanks to words
> vanishing or being eroded maybe? I'd be interested to know the rule
> about adjectives following feminine nouns undergoing lenition came
> about). I don't see why a similar thing couldn't happen with
> palatization like this over time, but as far as I know no celtic
> language does this. Do you think its realistic?
>
>
Well, yes.  It's generally seen as how the thing began.

The adjective after feminine noun(or, indeed, anything), came about
because feminine nouns ended in a vowel.  As far as I know, intervocalic
consonants were softened in Welsh, largely ignoring word boundaries.
So, because most Masculine nouns ended in *'-os', and most Feminine in
*'-a', things following feminine nouns softened, and following masculine
nouns did not.

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