24
votes
Does the letter p in a word mean that the word is not Germanic?
Not always.
Grimm's Law predicts that Proto-Indo-European *b would turn into Proto-Germanic *p. However, Proto-Indo-European *b is vanishingly rare, and some scholars argue it didn't actually exist in ...
- 62.5k
16
votes
How did Latin "aqua" became Sardinian "abba" and Romanian "apă"?
Labiovelars like /kʷ/ (that is, the Latin qu- sound) and /ɡʷ/ have turned into labial stops in at least some environments in a few different languages (almost exclusively in European Indo-European ...
- 2,059
15
votes
Does the letter p in a word mean that the word is not Germanic?
No, because PIE *p does not always become f. It does not in the cluster sp, for example "spin" < *spen, "sprawl" < *sper. Germanic p regularly derives from b, e.g. "deep&...
- 80.6k
14
votes
How did Latin "aqua" became Sardinian "abba" and Romanian "apă"?
The change of /kʷ/ > /p/ is moderately common, cross-linguistically. It also happened in Osco-Umbrian aka "P-Italic" (Oscan pis ~ Latin quis "who"), the "P-Celtic" ...
- 62.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Have ejective consonants ever arisen on their own?
It is almost true, in the sense that there are nearly no cases of ejectives unambiguously developing and clearly without external influence. There are two good candidates, though: Yapese and Waimoa. ...
- 80.6k
10
votes
Am I using the right terms in referring to "soft" and "hard" vowels and consonants?
The terms "hard" and "soft" aren't used in linguistics; instead, we describe the difference in terms of the difference in production (the vowel of "father" is a back vowel transcribed as [a] or [ɑ], ...
- 80.6k
10
votes
s / h change in Indo-European languages
This is a common sound change. [h] has no constriction above the larynx, and involves spreading the glottis so that any noise generated is turbulence as the air flows through the glottis. Most of the ...
- 80.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Why did German <d> and <t> flip over?
You have a few different correspondences here; I'll go through them individually.
day ~ dag ~ dag ~ Tag
This is part of the second German consonant shift (or the High German consonant shift). Among ...
- 62.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Apart from French, does any language have voicing-dependent change of place of articulation?
I don't think it's at all common for alveolopalatal and/or sibilant consonants to undergo place changes that are directly conditioned by the presence or absence of voicing: French doesn't actually ...
- 17.4k
10
votes
Is there a sound change from [ɡ] to [i] or [j]?
There certainly is.
For example, final -y in English often comes from an older -ig (and there is often a current German cognate that ends in -ig)
It's a widespread phenomenon, one form of ...
- 7,424
10
votes
Accepted
Apparent exceptions to the sound law f -> h in old Spanish
Some of these words were re-loaned from Classical Latin after the change of Old Spanish /f/ to /h/ had stopped: compare loaned forma "shape" against inherited horma "mold" (as you ...
- 62.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Why does French "cheveu(x)" have "eu" and not "eau"?
L /kasˈtɛl.lʊm/ > VL /kasˈtɛl.lũ/ > OF /t͡ʃahˈtɛl/ > MF /ʃaˈtɛau/> F /ʃaˈto/
L /ˈwɛ.tʊ.lʊm/ > VL /ˈβɛ.lũ/ > /ˈvjɛ.lu/ > OF /vjɛl/ > MF /vjɛu/ > F /vjø/
L /kaˈpɪl.lʊm/ ...
- 661
9
votes
Proto-Polynesian reconstruction and ambiguities in Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan and Tongan
Tongan /s/ seems to be the regular reflex of *t before /i/. Wikipedia says
Tongan has retained the original proto-Polynesian *h, but has merged it with the original *s as /h/. (The /s/ found in ...
- 17.4k
9
votes
Words in English which elided medial 'g' or 'v' (or initial 'h' before 'l', 'n', or 'r')
All the following information comes from Christopher Upward's The History of English Spelling:
Words that lost initial ‘h’:
OE hlaf ModE ‘loaf’
OE hlud ModE ‘loud’
OE hlædder ModE ‘ladder’
OE ...
- 1,379
8
votes
How does the initial consonant in "Jupiter" and "Zeus" come from the "d" in PIE "*dyew-"?
The Proto-Indo-European form behind Zeus is reconstructed as *dyēw-s, with the oblique stem *diw- used for all forms except nominative, accusative, and vocative. This sort of alternation between *yē ...
- 62.5k
8
votes
Am I using the right terms in referring to "soft" and "hard" vowels and consonants?
There is no universal technical meaning for 'hard' and 'soft' when it comes to sounds. You will not find it used by professional phoneticians.
However, within many languages, there are pedagogic ...
- 10.6k
8
votes
Accepted
How these close sounds are distinguished in native language
If you mean "what can I do to learn the distinctions", you need repeated and varied exposure to the sounds in question, and you need some method of telling if you're correct in your hearing and ...
- 80.6k
8
votes
Why does Sankr. नक्ति (nákti) not show Satemization
As commonly reconstructed, PIE had three different types of "velar-ish" plosives:
"Palatal velars" (probably plain velar): *ḱ, *ǵ, *ǵʰ
"Plain velars" (probably uvular): *k, *g, *gʰ
"Labial velars" (...
- 62.5k
8
votes
What is the best linguistic term for describing the kw > p / gw > b change, and its usual companion s > h
The change from /s/ to /h/ is called debuccalization, from Latin bucca, "mouth". The name is generally applied to any change that turns a non-glottal sound glottal, since it's moving the articulation "...
- 62.5k
8
votes
What is the name of this sound change, and do we have it in English?
The shift of classical Persian ān to ūn is a feature of Tehran dialect (Tehrūnī), and of many other forms of colloquial Persian. It is an example of “labialization”. This phenomenon is widespread in ...
- 23.7k
8
votes
What is the name of this sound change, and do we have it in English?
I don't know Persian, however I have some knowledge of linguistics. The example given seems to be linked to a shift in register (different use of language in different circumstances). The formal ...
- 416
8
votes
Accepted
Why did Finnish and Sami noun-final A and I flip over?
I recommend Pekka Sammallahti's historical analysis (collectively, and I think most extensively in The Saami languages). He does does not go straight from proto-FS to North Saami or base his analysis ...
- 80.6k
8
votes
Could some European languages get phonemic vowel length in future?
It absolutely can happen, and indeed it has done in the past couple of decades in at least one instance!
In his book, English after RP, Geoffrey Lindsey describes the phonetics Standard Southern ...
- 6,497
7
votes
*sn > n (in Latin)
As Sihler puts it, [in Latin] "an s is lost before most voiced consonants" (para 225), cf. Meiser "(Konsonant+) s schwindet im Anlaut vor Nasal." Thus, in Anlaut (word-initial) clusters *sn, *sm, *sl ...
- 8,675
7
votes
Accepted
Voicing as lenition
It's not based so much in what feels stronger, but on the overall patterns of sound changes. There is a tendency for voiceless consonants to become voiced, and voiced consonants to become continuants ...
- 1,484
7
votes
Are sound changes regular?
I'm only an amateur in historical linguistics, so my viewpoint is fairly naïve. I'd say: not always, but often enough to make regularity the most important consideration in reconstruction.
In modern ...
- 17.4k
7
votes
West Germanic Th-Stopping
Th-stopping of original Proto-Germanic voiced /d~ð/ to /d/ in all contexts is normal for Old English. It seems to be a common feature of West Germanic languages. The modern-day /ð/ in "father" is due ...
- 17.4k
7
votes
How did Proto-Indo-European *septm evolve into English "seven"?
The excellent German etymological dictionary by Pfeiffer has this:
sieben Num. Ahd. sibun (8. Jh.), mhd. siben (md. siven), asächs.
siҍun, mnd. sēven, sȫven, mnl. sēven, nl. zeven, aengl. seofon, ...
- 23.7k
7
votes
Accepted
Possible diachronic developments of th sounds
Proto-Semitic *ϑ becomes /ϑ/ in (classical) Arabic, /t/ in Aramaic and some Arabic dialects, /ʃ/ in Hebrew, /s/ in Amharic, /f/ in some Arabic dialects.
Proto-Semitic *δ becomes /δ/ in (classical) ...
- 23.7k
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