Re: Palatization and Lenition etc

Joe wrote:

> 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.
>
>
The thing is, lenition doesn't occur when a noun follows another noun
that ends in a vowel does it? Why doesn't it also happen in this
situation? Do you have any idea what stopped it applying to this when
the "softening" effect first started to occur? The only thing I can
think is that something else (possibly an article) blocked it.

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