Sondiv Historical Linguistics

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Proto-Sondiv underwent a considerable number of sound changes that notably resulted in modern Sondiv developing nasal vowels and losing most of its consonant clusters and vowel sequences.

Nasal assimilation

C[+nasal] > [αplace] / _C[αplace]

Nasal consonants assimilated in place of articulation with the following consonant.

Devoicing

C[+obs] > [-voice] / _C[-voice]

Before unvoiced consonants, *z, *v, *b, *d and *g devoiced.

Word-finally, *z devoiced.

Voicing

C > [+voice] / C[+nasal]_, _C[+voice, -cont]

Before *b, *d and *g and after nasals, *p, *t and *k voiced.

First fortition

C > [+stop] / C[+nasal]_

After nasals, *v became b, and *z, *l, *r and *s became d. Importantly, this change continues to occur, and is applied again after the last rule listed here.

Second fortition

C[+lateral] > [+stop] / _V[+high]

Before *u or *i, *l and *r became d. This did not occur if the vowel resulted from a sequence whose first vowel was not high and which occurred as a result of glide simplification (see below).

First glottal deletion

C[+glottal] > Ø / V_V[-back], _#

Unless this resulted in a sequence of identical vowels, *h disappeared after a vowel and before *i or *e.

Word-finally, *h was lost, though in modern Sondiv, it reappears if the word comes before another that begins with a vowel.

Second glottal deletion

C[+glottal] > Ø / C[+obs]_

After stops, fricatives and approximants, *h disappeared.

Loss of hiatus

VV > CV, V

Before a non-identical vowel, *i and *u became y and w respectively:

• *ia > ya
• *ua > wa
• *ie > ye
• *ue > we
• *io > yo
• *uo > wo
• *iu > yu
• *ui > wi

Most of the other vowel sequences became singletons:

• *aa, *ea, *oa > a
• *ii, *ei > i
• *uu, *eu, *ou > u
• *au, *ao > o
• *ai, *ae, *oi > e

Glide degemination

C_x[+glide]C_x[+glide] > [+continuant]

Even in situations where *h would ordinarily be deleted (see above), *ww, *yy and *hh became singletons.

First glide simplification

C[+glide] > Ø / V_{#/C}

Syllable-final glides combined with the previous vowel to form a new syllable-final vowel:

• *iy, *uy, *ey > i
• *oy, *ay > e
• *uw, *ow, *iw, *ew > u
• *aw > o

Second glide simplification

C[+glide, αplace] > [+cont] / _V[+high, αplace]

When they could not otherwise be pronounced, *y and *w became i and u.

The sequences *yi and *wu became ji and vu respectively.

Nasal simplification

C[+nasal] > [+alveolar] / _#

Word-finally, *m became n.

Nasalization

V > [+nasal] / _C[+nasal](C/#)

Vowels became nasal before nasal codas, and the nasals themselves disappeared.

Vowel lowering

V[+nasal] > [-high]

The nasalized *in and *un became en and on respectively. This change was unaffected by elided vowels that produced de facto nasal codas.

Cluster simplification

C > Ø / C_#

When a word ended in an unpronounceable cluster, the final consonant was lost. In modern Sondiv, it is reintroduced if and only if a word beginning with a vowel immediately follows it and is a part of the same constituent.