Word evolution game

[Zju]

Voiceless vowels fricate (in the meantime, technology has advanced):

[kxí.çēnʃ]

"display (screen); (arch.) kaleidoscope; (dial.) magnifying glass"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

[kx] > [cç] before front vowels:

[ççí.çēnʃ]
kíhēnsh

"display (screen); (arch.) kaleidoscope; (dial.) magnifying glass"

[Travis B.]

[ç] > [ʃ] > [s] > [θ]

[cçí.ʃēns]
kíhēnsh

"display (screen); (arch.) kaleidoscope; (dial.) magnifying glass"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

[ç] > [ʃ]

[cʃí.ʃēns]
kshíshēns

"display (screen); (arch.) kaleidoscope; (dial.) magnifying glass"

[Zju]

TS > S / #_ ; Mocking use of dialectal words becomes fashionable:

[ʃí.ʃēns]
kshíshēns

"magnifying glass; display (screen)"

[Travis B.]

People get sick of using so many sibilants, so they adopt [ʃ] > [x] when not before [i].

[ʃí.xēns]
kshíshēns

"magnifying glass; display (screen)"

[Zju]

Level tones turn into contrastive contour tones:

[ʃí.xèns]
shíshēns

"magnifying glass; display (screen)"

[Man in Space]

It could easily come from lateralization of a rhoticized *s.

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Vowels lengthen in open syllables:

[ʃíː.xèns]
shíhēns

"magnifying glass; display (screen)"

[Travis B.]

It could easily come from lateralization of a rhoticized *s.

But that is not a direct change, and is likely to not be unconditional.

[Rounin Ryuuji]

I believe the original intention of the game was to do one shift per round (though this could be a chain shift, but not a sequences of shifts piling up), because of how loopy (and I am as guilty of making it so as anybody else) the Phrase Evolution Game got. Consequently [s] > [l] does strike me as an implausible (if not impossible) direct change.

[Travis B.]

I believe the original intention of the game was to do one shift per round (though this could be a chain shift, but not a sequences of shifts piling up), because of how loopy (and I am as guilty of making it so as anybody else) the Phrase Evolution Game got. Consequently [s] > [l] does strike me as an implausible (if not impossible) direct change.

I made my original comment because someone seems to have a tendency to frequently introduce implausible spontaneous lateralization...

[Rounin Ryuuji]

I made my original comment because someone seems to have a tendency to frequently introduce implausible spontaneous lateralization...

Yes, and I agree that this is a problem for its implausibility, since a sequence of shifts seems very much against the spirit of the game. I wouldn't object to [dʲ] > [l] (attested in Latin), [n] > [l] (attested in initial position in Cantonese), or any number of others, like [j] > [ʎ], [ŋ] or [w] > [ɫ], or even a [ʃ] > [ɬ].

[Travis B.]

I made my original comment because someone seems to have a tendency to frequently introduce implausible spontaneous lateralization...

Yes, and I agree that this is a problem for its implausibility, since a sequence of shifts seems very much against the spirit of the game. I wouldn't object to [dʲ] > [l] (attested in Latin), [n] > [l] (attested in initial position in Cantonese), or any number of others, like [j] > [ʎ], [ŋ] or [w] > [ɫ], or even a [ʃ] > [ɬ].

I feel that less frequent sound changes should be made, well, less frequently. While lateralization does happen, as you state, it is not a common sound change overall, and certainly whole classes of phone should not be lateralized simultaneously (e.g. turning multiple different kinds of voiceless fricatives into laterals).

[Zju]

Fortition of fricatives after nasals:

[ʃíː.xènt͡s]
shíhēns

"magnifying glass; display (screen)"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Nasal + voiceless consonant sequences become prenasalised voiced consonants

[ʃíː.xèⁿd͡z]
shíhēns

"magnifying glass; display (screen)"

[Man in Space]

Sibilant-plus-/i/ sequences change into sibilant-plus-syllabic-fricative sequences à la Mandarin

[ʃʒ̩ː.xènd͡z]
shíhēns

'magnifying glass; screen; pane of glass'

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Rhotacism:

[ʃʒ̩ː.xèⁿʁ̞]
shihērn

'magnifying glass; screen; pane of glass'

[Man in Space]

Backing of front vowels when velars precede:

[ʃʒ̩ː.xɤ̀ⁿʁ̞]
shihērn

'screen; pane of glass; (obsolete) magnifying glass'

[foxcatdog]

*x > *ɣ intervocalically

[ʃʒ̩ː.ɣɤ̀ⁿʁ̞]
shihērn

'screen; pane of glass; (obsolete) magnifying glass'