Consonant mutation
Encyclopedia
Consonant mutation is when a consonant
in a word changes according to its morphological
and/or syntactic
environment.
Mutation phenomena occur in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all modern Celtic languages
. Initial consonant mutation is also found in Indonesian
or Malay
, in Southern Paiute
and in several West African languages
such as Fula
. The Nilotic language
Dholuo, spoken in Kenya
, shows mutation of stem-final consonants, as does English
to a small extent. Mutation of initial, medial, and final consonants is found in Modern Hebrew
. Japanese
exhibits word medial consonant mutation involving voicing, rendaku
, in many compounds.
are well known for their initial consonant mutations. The individual languages vary on the number of mutations available: the Goidelic languages
Scottish Gaelic, Manx and Irish have two, and the Brythonic languages
Welsh, Breton, and Cornish each have three (but not the same three). Additionally, Irish and the Brythonic languages have so-called "mixed mutations," where a trigger causes one mutation to some sounds and another to other sounds. The languages vary on the environments for the mutations, though some generalizations can be made. In all the languages, feminine singular nouns are mutated after the definite article, and adjectives are mutated after feminine singular nouns. In most of the languages, the possessive adjective
s trigger various mutations. Following are some examples from Breton, Irish, and Welsh:
Older textbooks on Gaelic sometimes refer to the c → ch mutation as "aspiration", but it is not aspiration
in the sense of the word used by modern phoneticians, and linguists prefer to speak of lenition
here.
Historically, the Celtic initial mutations originated from progressive assimilation and sandhi
phenomena between adjacent words. For example, the mutating effect of the conjunction a 'and' is due to the fact that it used to have the form *ak, and the final consonant influenced the following sounds.
For details see the articles on the individual languages:
Another type of consonant mutation found in the Celtic languages is affection
.
spoken in central Vanuatu
.
For example, in Raga language
:
These patterns of mutations probably arose when a nasal prefix, used to indicate realis mood, became combined with the initial consonant of the verb. The possible ancestral pattern of mutation, and its descendants in some modern Central Vanuatu languages, are shown below:
(one of the Luo languages
) shows alternations between voiced and voiceless states of the final consonant of a noun stem. In the construct state (the form that means 'hill of', 'stick of', etc.) the voicing of the final consonant is switched from the absolute state. (There are also often vowel alternations
that are independent of consonant mutation.) 'hill' (abs.), god (const.) 'stick' (abs.), luð (const.) 'appearance' (abs.), kit (const.) 'bone' (abs.), tʃok (const.)
. The Gombe dialect spoken in Nigeria
, for example, shows mutation triggered by declension
class. The mutation grades are fortition
and prenasalization
:
For example, the stems rim- 'free man' and [ɣim-] 'person' have the following forms: (class 2), dimo (class 1), ndimon (class 6) (class 2), gimɗo (class 1), ŋgimkon (class 6)
shows a limited set of mutation alternations, involving spirantization only. The consonants affected may be stem-initial, stem-medial, or stem-final.
For example, some verbs show mutation between tenses and conjugation classes: "he wrote", [jixtov] "he will write" "he sank" (transitive), [tava] "he sank" (intransitive)
Some nouns show mutation between masculine and feminine, between singular and plural, or after prepositions: "a king", [malka] "a queen", [melaxim] "kings", [melaxot] (spoken Hebrew, [malkot]) "a bear" (masc.), [duba] "a bear" (fem.), [dubim] "bears" (masc.), [dubot] "bears" (fem.) "a house", [be-vajit] "in a house" (in spoken Modern Hebrew: [be-bajit]
But some words (those that diachronically use the etymologically distinct letters ו, ח, and ק in place of the morphing כ and ב) do not have alternations: "he hacked", [jaxtov] "he will hack" (The [x] sound comes from a ח, not a spirantized כ) "good", [tovin]~[tovim] "goods" (The [v] sound comes from a ו, not a spirantized ב) "a kibbutz", [be-kibut͡s] "in a kibbutz" (The [k] sound comes from a ק, not a radical כ)
In some limited cases, initial mutation can signal adverbial status in spoken Modern Hebrew: "a request", [be-vakaʃa] "please" (spoken or written, "בבקשה"), [vakʃa] "please" (spoken, informal).
or fricative consonant
is formed by prefixing the verb stem with meN-, in which N stands for a nasal consonant
sharing the place of articulation
as the initial consonant.
If the initial consonant is an unvoiced stop or s, it disappears, leaving only the nasal in its place.
Applied to verbs starting with a vowel, the nasal consonant is realized as ng ([ŋ]).
Monosyllabic verbs add an epenthetic vowel before prefixing, producing the prefix menge-.
Verbs starting with a nasal or approximant consonant
do not add the mutant nasal at all, just me-.
(meaning sequential voicing) is a mutation of the initial consonant of a non-initial component in a Japanese
compound word.
Some compounds exhibiting rendaku:
nigiri + sushi → nigirizushi ("grip (with the hand)" + "sushi" → "hand-shaped sushi
")
nigori + sake → nigorizake ("muddy" + "rice wine" → "unfiltered sake")
Nigori in "nigorizake" and the daku in "rendaku" are actually different readings (see On-yomi and Kun-yomi) of the same kanji
, because voiced and unvoiced consonants are described in Japanese as opaque and clear.
, consonant mutation and alternation
s are a very common phenomenon during word formation
, conjugation
and in comparative adjectives.
The most common classes of mutations involve
Other common mutations are:→/tɕ/ (т→ч) / /d/→/ʐ/ (д→ж)→/ʐ/ (з→ж)/ /s/→/ʂ/ (с→ш) / /ts/→/tɕ/ (ц→ч)→/ɕː/ (ск→щ): плеск → плещет "splash" / "(he) splashes"
, where it goes by the traditional name of consonant gradation
.
, also called Southern Paiute, there are three consonant mutations, which are triggered by different word-stems. The mutations are Spirantization, Gemination
, and Prenasalization
:
For example, the absolutive suffix -pi appears in different forms, according to which noun stem it is suffixed to:
language created by J. R. R. Tolkien
has mutation patterns inspired by those of Welsh. The first letter of a noun usually undergoes mutation when the noun follows a closely associated word such as an article or preposition. Thus, we get certh, rune, and i gerth, the rune. Also, second elements of compounds and direct objects of verbs undergo mutation.
language features a complex mutation pattern, with every root consonant having eight possible mutations of is base form. Idiosyncratically, these are all consonant cluster
s rather than single consonants. Its phonologically simpler successor Ilaksh retains the feature as well, though reduces the grades to three.
, which can refer to word-initial alternations triggered by their phonological
environment, unlike mutations, which are triggered by their morphosyntactic environment. Some examples of word-initial sandhi are listed below.
Sandhi effects like these (or other phonological processes) are usually the historical origin of morphosyntactically triggered mutation. For example, the English fricative mutation described above originates in an allophonic
alternation of Old English
, where a voiced fricative occurred between vowels (or other voiced consonants), and a voiceless one occurred initially or finally, and also when adjacent to voiceless consonants. Old English infinitives ended in -(i)an and plural nouns (of one very common declension class) ended in -as. Thus, hūs 'a house' had [s], while hūsas 'houses' and hūsian 'to house' had [z]. After most endings were lost in English, and the contrast between voiced and voiceless fricatives phonemicized (largely due to the influx of French
loanwords), the alternation was morphologized.
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
in a word changes according to its morphological
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and/or syntactic
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
environment.
Mutation phenomena occur in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all modern Celtic languages
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
. Initial consonant mutation is also found in Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
or Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
, in Southern Paiute
Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
and in several West African languages
African languages
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
such as Fula
Fula language
The Fula or Fulani language is a language of West Africa. It is spoken as a first language by the and related groups from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan...
. The Nilotic language
Nilotic languages
The Nilotic languages are a group of Eastern Sudanic languages spoken across a wide area between southern Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples, particularly associated with cattle-herding...
Dholuo, spoken in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, shows mutation of stem-final consonants, as does English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to a small extent. Mutation of initial, medial, and final consonants is found in Modern Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
. Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
exhibits word medial consonant mutation involving voicing, rendaku
Rendaku
is a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology that governs the voicing of the initial consonant of the non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word...
, in many compounds.
Celtic languages
The Celtic languagesCeltic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
are well known for their initial consonant mutations. The individual languages vary on the number of mutations available: the Goidelic languages
Goidelic languages
The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...
Scottish Gaelic, Manx and Irish have two, and the Brythonic languages
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
Welsh, Breton, and Cornish each have three (but not the same three). Additionally, Irish and the Brythonic languages have so-called "mixed mutations," where a trigger causes one mutation to some sounds and another to other sounds. The languages vary on the environments for the mutations, though some generalizations can be made. In all the languages, feminine singular nouns are mutated after the definite article, and adjectives are mutated after feminine singular nouns. In most of the languages, the possessive adjective
Possessive adjective
Possessive adjectives, also known as possessive determiners, are a part of speech that modifies a noun by attributing possession to someone or something...
s trigger various mutations. Following are some examples from Breton, Irish, and Welsh:
| Breton | Irish | Welsh | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| gwreg | bean | gwraig | woman |
| bras | mór | mawr | big |
| ar wreg vras | an bhean mhór | y wraig fawr | the big woman |
| kazh | cat | cath | cat |
| e gazh | a chat | ei gath | his cat |
| he c'hazh | a cat | ei chath | her cat |
| o c'hazh | a gcat | eu cath | their cat |
Older textbooks on Gaelic sometimes refer to the c → ch mutation as "aspiration", but it is not aspiration
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
in the sense of the word used by modern phoneticians, and linguists prefer to speak of lenition
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
here.
Historically, the Celtic initial mutations originated from progressive assimilation and sandhi
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
phenomena between adjacent words. For example, the mutating effect of the conjunction a 'and' is due to the fact that it used to have the form *ak, and the final consonant influenced the following sounds.
For details see the articles on the individual languages:
- Breton mutationsBreton mutationsLike all modern Celtic languages, Breton is characterised by initial consonant mutations, which are changes to the initial sound of a word caused by certain syntactic or morphological environments...
- Cornish language: grammar
- Irish initial mutationsIrish initial mutationsIrish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions...
- Manx language: initial consonant mutations
- Scottish Gaelic: Lenition
- Welsh morphologyWelsh morphologyThe morphology of the Welsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a...
Another type of consonant mutation found in the Celtic languages is affection
Affection (linguistics)
In Celtic linguistics, affection is the change in the quality of a vowel under the influence of the vowel of the following, final syllable. The vowel triggering the change may or may not still be present in the modern language.The two main types of affection are a-infection and i-infection...
.
Central Vanuatu languages
Mutation of the initial consonant of verbs is a characteristic feature of many Austronesian languagesAustronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
spoken in central Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
.
For example, in Raga language
Raga language
Raga is the language of northern Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Raga belongs to the East Vanuatu languages, a branch of the Austronesian languages family...
:
- nan vano "I went"
- nam bano "I go"
These patterns of mutations probably arose when a nasal prefix, used to indicate realis mood, became combined with the initial consonant of the verb. The possible ancestral pattern of mutation, and its descendants in some modern Central Vanuatu languages, are shown below:
| Proto-Central Vanuatu | *k > *ŋk | *r > *nr | *p > *mp |
| Raga (Pentecost) | x > ŋg | t > d | v / vw > b / bw |
| northern Apma (Pentecost) | k > ŋg | t > d | v / w > b / bw |
| southern Apma (Pentecost) | v / w > b / bw | ||
| Ske (Pentecost) | z > d | v / vw > b / bw | |
| Lonwolwol (Ambrym) | r > rV | ∅ > bV | |
| Southeast Ambrym | x / h / ∅ > g | t > d | v / h > b |
| northern Paama | ∅ > k | t > r | |
| central/southern Paama | k / ∅ > g / ŋ | t / r > d | |
| Nāti (Malekula) | k / ʔ > ŋk | t / r > nt / ntr | v / w > mp / mpw |
| Maii (Epi) | t > d | v > b | |
| Lewo (Epi) | v / w > p / pw | ||
| Lamenu (Epi) | ∅ > p | ||
| Bierebo (Epi) | k > ŋk | t / c > nd / nj | v / w > p / pw |
| Baki (Epi) | c > s | v > mb | |
| Bieria (Epi) | t > nd | v > mb | |
| Nakanamanga (Efaté-Shepherds) | k > ŋ | r > t | v / w > p / pw |
| Namakir (Shepherds) | k > ŋ | t / r > d | v / w > b |
Dholuo
The Dholuo languageDholuo language
The Luo language, Dholuo or Luo proper, is the eponymous language of the Luo group of Nilotic languages, spoken by about 4.4 million Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Lake Victoria and areas to the south...
(one of the Luo languages
Luo languages
The Nilotic Luo languages, or Lwoian, are a dozen languages spoken by the Luo peoples in an area ranging from southern Sudan via Uganda to southern Kenya, with Dholuo extending into northern Tanzania and Alur into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They form one of the two branches of Western...
) shows alternations between voiced and voiceless states of the final consonant of a noun stem. In the construct state (the form that means 'hill of', 'stick of', etc.) the voicing of the final consonant is switched from the absolute state. (There are also often vowel alternations
Apophony
In linguistics, apophony is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammatical information .-Description:Apophony is...
that are independent of consonant mutation.) 'hill' (abs.), god (const.) 'stick' (abs.), luð (const.) 'appearance' (abs.), kit (const.) 'bone' (abs.), tʃok (const.)
- buk 'book' (abs.), bug (const.) 'book' (abs.), kɪtap (const.)
Fula
Consonant mutation is a prominent feature of the Fula languageFula language
The Fula or Fulani language is a language of West Africa. It is spoken as a first language by the and related groups from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan...
. The Gombe dialect spoken in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, for example, shows mutation triggered by declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
class. The mutation grades are fortition
Fortition
Fortition is a consonantal change from a 'weak' sound to a 'strong' one, the opposite of the more common lenition. For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a plosive...
and prenasalization
Prenasalized consonant
Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent that behave phonologically like single consonants. The reasons for considering these sequences to be single consonants is in their behavior, not in their actual composition...
:
| Radical | Fortition | Prenasalization |
|---|---|---|
| f | p | p |
| s | ʃ | ʃ |
| h | k | k |
| w | b | mb |
| r | d | nd |
| j | dʒ, ɡ | ɲdʒ, ŋɡ |
| ɣ | ɡ | ŋɡ |
For example, the stems rim- 'free man' and [ɣim-] 'person' have the following forms: (class 2), dimo (class 1), ndimon (class 6) (class 2), gimɗo (class 1), ŋgimkon (class 6)
Hebrew
Modern HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
shows a limited set of mutation alternations, involving spirantization only. The consonants affected may be stem-initial, stem-medial, or stem-final.
| Radical | Spirantized |
|---|---|
| p | f |
| k | x |
| b | v |
For example, some verbs show mutation between tenses and conjugation classes: "he wrote", [jixtov] "he will write" "he sank" (transitive), [tava] "he sank" (intransitive)
Some nouns show mutation between masculine and feminine, between singular and plural, or after prepositions: "a king", [malka] "a queen", [melaxim] "kings", [melaxot] (spoken Hebrew, [malkot]) "a bear" (masc.), [duba] "a bear" (fem.), [dubim] "bears" (masc.), [dubot] "bears" (fem.) "a house", [be-vajit] "in a house" (in spoken Modern Hebrew: [be-bajit]
But some words (those that diachronically use the etymologically distinct letters ו, ח, and ק in place of the morphing כ and ב) do not have alternations: "he hacked", [jaxtov] "he will hack" (The [x] sound comes from a ח, not a spirantized כ) "good", [tovin]~[tovim] "goods" (The [v] sound comes from a ו, not a spirantized ב) "a kibbutz", [be-kibut͡s] "in a kibbutz" (The [k] sound comes from a ק, not a radical כ)
In some limited cases, initial mutation can signal adverbial status in spoken Modern Hebrew: "a request", [be-vakaʃa] "please" (spoken or written, "בבקשה"), [vakʃa] "please" (spoken, informal).
Indonesian and Malay
The active form of a multisyllabic verb with an initial stop consonantStop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
or fricative consonant
Fricative consonant
Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
is formed by prefixing the verb stem with meN-, in which N stands for a nasal consonant
Nasal consonant
A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
sharing the place of articulation
Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator , and a passive location...
as the initial consonant.
- garuk → menggaruk (= to scratch), hitung → menghitung (= to count),
- beri → memberi (= to give), fitnah → memfitnah (= to accuse falsely),
- cari → mencari (= to search), dapat → mendapat (= to obtain), *jangkau → menjangkau (= to reach)
If the initial consonant is an unvoiced stop or s, it disappears, leaving only the nasal in its place.
- kandung → mengandung (= to contain or to be pregnant),
- putih → memutih (= to turn white),
- satu → menyatu (= to become one / to unite),
- tulis → menulis (= to write).
Applied to verbs starting with a vowel, the nasal consonant is realized as ng ([ŋ]).
Monosyllabic verbs add an epenthetic vowel before prefixing, producing the prefix menge-.
- bor (= boring tool / drill) → mengebor (= to make a hole with drill).
Verbs starting with a nasal or approximant consonant
Approximant consonant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...
do not add the mutant nasal at all, just me-.
Japanese
RendakuRendaku
is a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology that governs the voicing of the initial consonant of the non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word...
(meaning sequential voicing) is a mutation of the initial consonant of a non-initial component in a Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
compound word.
Some compounds exhibiting rendaku:
nigiri + sushi → nigirizushi ("grip (with the hand)" + "sushi" → "hand-shaped sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
")
nigori + sake → nigorizake ("muddy" + "rice wine" → "unfiltered sake")
Nigori in "nigorizake" and the daku in "rendaku" are actually different readings (see On-yomi and Kun-yomi) of the same kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
, because voiced and unvoiced consonants are described in Japanese as opaque and clear.
Russian
In RussianRussian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, consonant mutation and alternation
Alternation
Alternation may refer to:*Alternation *Alternation , a variation in the phonological form of a morpheme*Diathesis alternation*Alternation , a resource in computational complexity theory*R/N alternation, see Rhotacism...
s are a very common phenomenon during word formation
Word formation
In linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning...
, conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
and in comparative adjectives.
The most common classes of mutations involve
- velarVelar consonantVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
/postalveolarPostalveolar consonantPostalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate...
alternation /k/→/tɕ/ (к→ч), /ɡ/→/ʐ/ (г→ж), /x/→/ʂ/ (х→ш): тихий/тише (comparative adjective: quiet→quieter) - Gain/loss of palatalizationPalatalizationIn linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
: царь/царский (adjective formation: tsarTsarTsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
(n.)/ tsar (adj.))
Other common mutations are:→/tɕ/ (т→ч) / /d/→/ʐ/ (д→ж)→/ʐ/ (з→ж)/ /s/→/ʂ/ (с→ш) / /ts/→/tɕ/ (ц→ч)→/ɕː/ (ск→щ): плеск → плещет "splash" / "(he) splashes"
Uralic languages
Word-medial consonant mutation is pervasive in certain Uralic languagesUralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
, where it goes by the traditional name of consonant gradation
Consonant gradation
Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation, in which consonants alternate between various "grades". It is found in some Uralic languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Northern Sámi, and the Samoyed language Nganasan. In addition, it has been reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, the parent...
.
Ute language
In the Ute languageUte language
Colorado River Numic , of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, is a dialect chain that stretches from southeastern California to Colorado...
, also called Southern Paiute, there are three consonant mutations, which are triggered by different word-stems. The mutations are Spirantization, Gemination
Fortition
Fortition is a consonantal change from a 'weak' sound to a 'strong' one, the opposite of the more common lenition. For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a plosive...
, and Prenasalization
Prenasalized consonant
Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent that behave phonologically like single consonants. The reasons for considering these sequences to be single consonants is in their behavior, not in their actual composition...
:
| Radical | Spirantization | Gemination | Prenasalization |
|---|---|---|---|
| p | v | pp | mp |
| t | r | tt | nt |
| k | ɣ | kk | ŋk |
| kʷ | ɣʷ | kkʷ | ŋkʷ |
| ts | tts | nts | |
| s | ss | ||
| m | ŋkʷ | mm | mm |
| n | nn | nn |
For example, the absolutive suffix -pi appears in different forms, according to which noun stem it is suffixed to:
- movi-ppi 'nose'
- sappI-vi 'belly'-mpi 'tongue'
Sindarin
The SindarinSindarin
Sindarin is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called the Eledhrim or Edhellim in Sindarin....
language created by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
has mutation patterns inspired by those of Welsh. The first letter of a noun usually undergoes mutation when the noun follows a closely associated word such as an article or preposition. Thus, we get certh, rune, and i gerth, the rune. Also, second elements of compounds and direct objects of verbs undergo mutation.
Ithkuil
The philosophical IthkuilIthkuil
Ithkuil is a constructed language marked by outstanding grammatical complexity, expressed with a rich phonemic inventory or through an original, graphically structured, system of writing....
language features a complex mutation pattern, with every root consonant having eight possible mutations of is base form. Idiosyncratically, these are all consonant cluster
Consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....
s rather than single consonants. Its phonologically simpler successor Ilaksh retains the feature as well, though reduces the grades to three.
Mutation vs. sandhi
Initial consonant mutation must not be confused with sandhiSandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
, which can refer to word-initial alternations triggered by their phonological
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
environment, unlike mutations, which are triggered by their morphosyntactic environment. Some examples of word-initial sandhi are listed below.
- SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
: [b, d, ɡ], occurring after nasal consonantNasal consonantA nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
s and pause, alternate with [β, ð, ɣ], occurring after vowelVowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s and liquid consonantLiquid consonantIn phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:...
s. Example: un [b]arco 'a boat', mi [β]arco 'my boat'. This also occurs in HebrewHebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, AramaicAramaic languageAramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
and TamilTamil languageTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
. - Scottish Gaelic: in some dialects, stops in stressed syllables are voiced after nasals, e.g. [kʰaht] 'a cat', [əŋ ɡaht] 'the cat'.
Sandhi effects like these (or other phonological processes) are usually the historical origin of morphosyntactically triggered mutation. For example, the English fricative mutation described above originates in an allophonic
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
alternation of Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
, where a voiced fricative occurred between vowels (or other voiced consonants), and a voiceless one occurred initially or finally, and also when adjacent to voiceless consonants. Old English infinitives ended in -(i)an and plural nouns (of one very common declension class) ended in -as. Thus, hūs 'a house' had [s], while hūsas 'houses' and hūsian 'to house' had [z]. After most endings were lost in English, and the contrast between voiced and voiceless fricatives phonemicized (largely due to the influx of French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
loanwords), the alternation was morphologized.
Further reading
- Zimmer, Stefan. The Celtic Mutations: some typological comparisons. A Companion in Linguistics, a Festschrift for Anders Ahlqvist, ed. B. Smelik, R. Hofman, C. Hamans, D. Cram. Nijmegen: de Keltische Draak / Münster: Nodus 2004, 127-140.