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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Unlikely sound changes
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References: <adinkin-ya023180001703971944030001@news.usa1.com> <5glo2s$gc8@star.cs.vu.nl> <adinkin-ya023180001803971057200001@news.usa1.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 18:48:54 GMT
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Aaron J. Dinkin <adinkin@commschool.org> (two articles, edited together):

>>: It doesn't seem likely in any language that a phoneme such as /k/ - a velar
>>: stop - would eventually turn into /tS/ - a postalveolar affricate - in any
>>: environment. The phones have next to nothing in common, and it would be
>>: hard to imagine what could cause one to gradually evolve into the other.
>>: Similarly, /g/ becoming /dZ/ - the voiced equivalent - seems equally
>>: unlikely.
>
>In French, I believe, it happened before /a/:
>Latin "camera" -> French "chambre"
>Latin "Campania" -> French "Champaign"
>Latin "cattus" -> French "chat"
>Latin "caballus" -> French "cheval"

This also happens in Romontsch, e.g. Surselvan "tgaun" <- CANIS.  Well, 
actually, the Romontsch <tg> is a true palatal stop that contrasts with
[tS] derived from palatalisation before other vowels (e.g. tsch(i)el <-
CAELUM).  The current theory is that [a] was fronted to [%] in the Vulgar
Latin of Northern Gaul and Helvetia, causing palatalisation of [k] and
[g], and then later drifted back to its former position.

(Note to Dr. Whom:  Do you really intend to use phonemic transcription
(e.g. /a/) rather than phonetic transcription (e.g. [a]) in all your
posts?)
 
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
