Debuccalization or deoralization is a
sound change
A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...
or
alternation in which an oral
consonant loses its original
place of articulation and moves it to the
glottis
The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds (the rima glottidis). The glottis is crucial in producing vowels and voiced consonants.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ''γλωττίς'' (glōttís), derived from ''γλῶττα'' (glôtta), va ...
(usually , , or ). The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspiration, but in
phonetics,
aspiration is the burst of air accompanying a
stop
Stop may refer to:
Places
* Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Facilities
* Bus stop
* Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
. The word comes from
Latin , meaning "cheek" or "mouth".
Debuccalization is usually seen as a subtype of
lenition, which is often defined as a sound change involving the weakening of a consonant by progressive shifts in pronunciation. As with other forms of lenition, debuccalization may be
synchronic or diachronic (i.e. it may involve alternations within a language
depending on context or sound changes across time).
Debuccalization processes occur in many different types of environments such as the following:
* word-initially, as in
Kannada
* word-finally, as in
Burmese
Burmese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia
* Burmese people
* Burmese language
* Burmese alphabet
* Burmese cuisine
* Burmese culture
Animals
* Burmese cat
* Burmese chicken
* Burmese (hor ...
* intervocalically, as in a number of
English varieties (e.g. ''litter'' ), or in
Tuscan (''the house'' /la kasa/ →
a ˈhaːsa
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
Glottal stop
Arabic
is debuccalized to in several
Arabic varieties, such as northern
Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
,
Lebanese, western
Syrian
Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...
, and urban
Palestinian dialects, partially also in
Jordanian Arabic (especially by female speakers). The
Maltese language, which was originally an Arabic dialect, also shows this feature.
British and American English
Most English-speakers in England and many speakers of
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
debuccalize to a glottal stop in two environments: in word-final position before another consonant (American English IPA)
*''get ready''
*''not much''
*''not good''
*''it says''
Before a
syllabic following , , or or a vowel. The may then also be
nasally released. (American English IPA)
*''Milton''
*''Martin''
*''mountain''
*''cotton''
*''Latin''
Cockney English
In
Cockney English, is often realized as a glottal stop between vowels,
liquid
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...
s, and nasals (notably in the word ''bottle''), a process called
t-glottalization.
German
The
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
ending ''-en'' is commonly realized as an assimilated
syllabic nasal. Preceding voiceless stops are then
glottally released, e.g. ('laths'), ('nape of the neck'). When such a stop is additionally preceded by a
homorganic
In phonetics, a homorganic consonant (from ''homo-'' "same" and ''organ'' "(speech) organ") is a consonant sound that is articulated in the same place of articulation as another. For example, , and are homorganic consonants of one another since ...
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
, it tends to be debuccalized entirely, creating the clusters . For example, ('rag'), ('banks').
Voiced stops are not usually debuccalized. However, many
Upper German
Upper German (german: Oberdeutsch ) is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area ().
History
In the Old High German time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle High G ...
and
East Central German dialects merge voiced and unvoiced stops at least word-internally, and the merged consonants may be debuccalized. For example,
Bavarian, ('ducks') and ('Andes') are both pronounced . Speakers are often unaware of this.
Glottal fricative
Slavey
All coda consonants in
Slavey must be glottal. When a non-glottal consonant would otherwise be positioned in a syllable coda, it debuccalizes to :
* → ('hat')
* → ('scar')
* → ('rope')
Scots and Scottish English
In some varieties of
Scots and
Scottish English, particularly on the West Coast, a non word-final ''th'' shifted to , a process called
th-debuccalization. For example, is realized as .
Proto-Greek
In
Proto-Greek, shifted to initially and between
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
s (
vowels,
liquids, and
nasal
Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination:
* With reference to the human nose:
** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery
** ...
s).
*
Proto-Indo-European → Proto-Greek →
Ancient Greek () "seven" (vs.
Latin )
Intervocalic had been lost by the time of
Ancient Greek, and vowels in
hiatus were
contracted in the
Attic
An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...
dialect.
* post-PIE ''*ǵénesos'' → Proto-Greek →
Ionic () :
Attic
An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...
() "of a race"
Before a liquid or nasal, an was assimilated to the preceding vowel in Attic-Ionic and
Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
and to the following nasal in
Aeolic. The process is also described as the loss of and the subsequent lengthening of a vowel or consonant, which kept the syllable the same
length
Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Interna ...
(
compensatory lengthening).
* PIE → Proto-Greek → Attic-Ionic () : Aeolic () "I am"
Sanskrit
In
Sanskrit, becomes (written in transliteration) before a
pause: e.g. ('erotic love') becomes .
Additionally, the Indo-European aspirated voiced palato-velar *ǵʰ- became : e.g. "arm" becomes Sanskrit .
West Iberian
Spanish
A number of
Spanish dialects debuccalize at the
end of a
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
to or .
Galician
In many varieties of
Galician, as well as in
Galician-influenced Spanish, the phoneme may debuccalize () to in most or all instances; and are also possible realizations. There is also an inverse
hypercorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mi ...
process of older or less educated Galician speakers replacing the phoneme of the Spanish language with , which is called .
Portuguese
Portuguese is much less affected by debuccalization, but it is especially notable in its
Brazilian variety.
Throughout Brazil, the phoneme (historically an alveolar trill that moved to an uvular position) has a rather long inventory of allophones: . Only is uncommon. Few dialects, such as and , give preference to voiced allophones; elsewhere, they are common only as coda, before voiced consonants.
In such dialects, especially among people speaking an educated variety of Portuguese, it is usual for the rhotic coda in the
syllable rhyme
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
to be an alveolar tap, as in European Portuguese and many registers of Spanish, or to be realized as or . In the rest of the country, it is generally realized as , even by speakers who either do not normally use that allophone or delete it entirely, as is common in the vernacular.
However, in some - and -influenced rural registers, is used but as an allophone of (rhotic consonants are most often deleted), a merger, instead of the much more common and less-stigmatized
merger characteristic of all Brazilian urban centers except for those bordering
Mercosur countries, where coda was preserved, and the entire
North and
Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
regions. Its origin is the replacement of indigenous languages and by Portuguese, which created , and
r-colored vowel
In phonetics, an r-colored or rhotic vowel (also called a retroflex vowel, vocalic r, or a rhotacized vowel) is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant. R-colored vowels can be articulate ...
as allophones of both (now mostly ) and (now mostly ) phonemes in the coda since Native Brazilians could not easily pronounce them (
caipira dialect). The later Portuguese influence from other regions made those allophones become rarer in some areas, but the merger remained in a few isolated villages and towns.
Finally, many registers, especially those of the poor and of the youth, most northern and northeastern dialects, and, to a much minor degree, all other Brazilian dialects, debuccalize (that is, ) but less so than in Spanish. However, a merger or even a merger occurs: "but even so" or "though, right, the same (f) one" ; light "lighter, more slim", or also "less caloric/fatty" ; "but from me, no" or "not more from me" . A coda rhotic in the Brazilian dialects in the
Centro-Sul area is hardly ever glottal, and the debuccalized is unlikely to be confused with it.
Romanian
In the Moldavian dialect of
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
, is debuccalised to and so, for example, becomes . The same occurred in
Old Spanish
Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian ( es, castellano antiguo; osp, romance castellano ), or Medieval Spanish ( es, español medieval), was originally a dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken in the former provinces of the Roman Empire that provided ...
, Old
Gascon, and
Old Japanese and still occurs in
Sylheti.
Goidelic languages
In
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
and
Irish Gaelic
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was the ...
, ''s'' and ''t'' changed by
lenition to , spelled ''sh'' and ''th''.
Loanwords
Debuccalization can be a feature of
loanword phonology. For example, debuccalization can be seen in
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
loanwords into
Selayar.
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
"Debuccalization"(Chapter 4 of Paul D. Fallon's ''The Synchronic and Diachronic Phonology of Ejectives''
outledge, 2001 gives many other terms that have been proposed for the phenomenon.
Debuccalization and supplementary gestures{Dead link, date=July 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
Phonology