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Robert Unregistered guest Posted From:
| Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - 09:04 am: |
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I was wondering on what were the phonological conditions that led to eclipsis and lention, and in what contexts? Would I be right in saying that plosives were most succeptable and then the process got generalised to most consonants in time? | Unvoiced | Voiced | Nasalised | Basic | /p/ /t/ /k/ | /b/ /d/ /g/ | /m/ /n/ /n/ | Lenition | /f/ /θ/ /x/ | /w/ /δ/ /γ/ | /w/ /n/ /n/ | |
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Lughaidh
Member Username: Lughaidh
Post Number: 816 Registered: 01-2005
| Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - 02:07 pm: |
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At the beginning (5th century AD, so before Old Irish), lenition happened on a consonant when it was between two vowels: *sindos wiros bekkos > OI in fer bec > MI an fear beag *sindā benā bekkā > OI ind bhen bhec > MI an bhean bheag Eclipsis happened on a consonant when it was preceded by a word ending on -n, at the same period: *qennos sindān wiron bekkon > OI cend inna (b)fer mbec > MI ceann na bhfear (m)beag *sektan qrannos > OI secht gcrand > MI seacht gcrann In Old Irish there was a third type of initial mutation, called gemination. It doesn't exist anymore in Modern Irish, but there's a remaining of it: the h- prefixed to vowels: na hślla, etc. That h- occurs when there would have been a gemination in Old Irish. Maybe there are some little mistakes in my reconstructions above: Dennis, correct me if I am wrong ;-) |
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