Word evolution game

[foxcatdog]

[æɑ] > [ia]

[ˈxʷia.vɔʃ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog) marten (literary) German Shepherd"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Labialisation becomes labiopalatalisation before front vowels:

[ˈxᶣia.vɔʃ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Travis B.]

Labial-palatalization triggers rounding of following vowels and then is lost.

[ˈxya.vɔʃ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

[x] > [ʃ] before high front vowels

[ˈʃya.vɔʃ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Travis B.]

[ya] > [øː]

[ˈʃøː.vɔʃ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Terminal fricatives voice:

[ˈʃøː.vɔʒ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Travis B.]

Unstressed intervocalic [v] weakens to [ʋ].

[ˈʃøː.ʋɔʒ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Vowels lengthen before coda voiced consonants:

[ˈʃøː.ʋɔːʒ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Travis B.]

Devoicing of coda obstruents.

[ˈʃøː.ʋɔːʃ]
kwiavoss
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Stress shifts to the heaviest syllable,:

[ʃøː.'ʋɔːʃ]
scheeuwoosch
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[foxcatdog]

Terminal sibilant contrasts lost

[ʃøː.'ʋɔːs]
scheeuwoosch

[Travis B.]

Long vowels in unstressed syllables are shortened.

[ʃø.'ʋɔːs]
scheeuwoosch

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Unrounding

[ʃe'ʋɔːs]
scheeuwoosch

[foxcatdog]

*ʋ > ð

[ʃe'ðɔːs]
scheeuwoosch
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Rounin Ryuuji]

*ʋ > ð

Is this a change that actually happens?

Either way, long vowel breaking:

[ʃe'ðɛʊs]
scheeuwoosch
"A male (dog); marten; (literary) German Shepherd"

[Travis B.]

*ʋ > ð

Is this a change that actually happens?

I don't think so; I personally tend to prefer to avoid absurd changes like that and limit myself to realistic ones.

[Rounin Ryuuji]

*ʋ > ð

Is this a change that actually happens?

I don't think so; I personally tend to prefer to avoid absurd changes like that and limit myself to realistic ones.

I had always thought each change was meant to be one that could've reasonably occurred; I suppose you probably could've gotten from [ʋ] to [ð] through a series of intermediate steps, but you would need rather a lot of them.

[Travis B.]

I had always thought each change was meant to be one that could've reasonably occurred; I suppose you probably could've gotten from [ʋ] to [ð] through a series of intermediate steps, but you would need rather a lot of them.

Of course, per the rules of this game, one gets one shift that can happen at one time per turn - the only exceptions being chain-shifts and other shifts that happen at one point in time despite multiple phones being involved, and orthographic and meaning changes.

[foxcatdog]

Labiodental to Dental doesn't seem like a too drastic change to me.

[Man in Space]

*ʋ > ð

Is this a change that actually happens?

I don't think so; I personally tend to prefer to avoid absurd changes like that and limit myself to realistic ones.

On the old board, theta mentioned that this (well, *v >) may have happened at least once in some Polynesian language.