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Re: Weird sound changes
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 5:35 am
by Seirios
The Ming-deng / Mindong language of Min (Chinese) has synchronic consonantal assimilation /t, tʰ, s/ -> /ɾ/ medially after a vowel or /ʔ/ (along with /p, pʰ/ -> /β/, /k, kʰ, h/ -> zero, /ts, tsʰ/ -> /z̞/). I'm not sure how it developed, but missionary works in the 19th c. didn't note this phenomenon, so some think that it only became established by the early 20th c. or very late 19th c., which would make this pretty close to a single step process.
Re: Weird sound changes
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:59 am
by Creyeditor
Why is it considered assimilation and not lenition?
Re: Weird sound changes
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2021 1:37 pm
by dɮ the phoneme
Seirios wrote: ↑Sat Aug 07, 2021 5:35 am
The Ming-deng / Mindong language of Min (Chinese) has synchronic consonantal assimilation /t, tʰ, s/ -> /ɾ/ medially after a vowel or /ʔ/ (along with /p, pʰ/ -> /β/, /k, kʰ, h/ -> zero, /ts, tsʰ/ -> /z̞/). I'm not sure how it developed, but missionary works in the 19th c. didn't note this phenomenon, so some think that it only became established by the early 20th c. or very late 19th c., which would make this pretty close to a single step process.
These changes seem quite natural to me, actually. Why are you considering them weird?
Creyeditor wrote: ↑Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:59 am
Why is it considered assimilation and not lenition?
Well intervocalic lenition is
technically a type of assimilation