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Consonant mutation is change in aconsonant in aword according to itsmorphological orsyntactic environment.

Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all modernCeltic languages. Initial consonant mutation is also found inIndonesian orMalay, inNivkh, inSouthern Paiute and in severalWest African languages such asFula. TheNilotic languageDholuo, spoken inKenya, shows mutation of stem-final consonants, as doesEnglish to a small extent. Mutation of initial, medial and final consonants is found inModern Hebrew. Also,Japanese exhibits word medial consonant mutation involving voicing,rendaku, in many compounds.Uralic languages likeFinnish showconsonant gradation, a type of consonant mutation.

Initial consonant mutation must not be confused withsandhi, which can refer to word-initial alternations triggered by theirphonological environment, unlike mutations, which are triggered by theirmorphosyntactic environment. Some examples of word-initial sandhi are listed below.

• Spanish:[b,d,ɡ], occurring afternasals and pause, alternate with[β,ð,ɣ], occurring aftervowels andliquid consonants. Example: un [b]arco 'a boat', mi [β]arco 'my boat'. This also occurs inHebrew (asbegedkefet, anacronym for the consonants this affects),Aramaic, andTamil.
• Scottish Gaelic: in some dialects, stops in stressed syllables are voiced after nasals, e.g. cat[kʰaht] 'a cat', an cat[əŋɡaht] 'the cat'.

Sandhi effects like these (or other phonological processes) are usually the historical origin of morphosyntactically triggered mutation. For example, English fricative mutation (specifically, voicing) in words such ashouse [haus], pluralhouses [hauzɪz], and the verbto house [hauz] originates in anallophonic alternation ofOld English, where a voiced fricative occurred between vowels (or before 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 Class One nouns) ended in-as. Thus,hūs 'a house' had[s], andhūsian 'house (verb)' had[z]; however, the plural ofhūs washūs, being a neuter noun of the strong a-stem class. During the Middle English period,hous~hus, as part of the loss of gender and erosion of endings, developed plural variation, retaininghous [hu:s], the dative pluralhousen [hu:zən], which became extended to a general plural, and over time taking on thees plural from Old English Class 1 nouns, thushouses [hu:zəz]. After most endings were lost in English, and the contrast between voiced and voiceless fricatives partly phonemicized (largely due to the influx ofFrench loanwords), the alternation was morphologized.

In Old English, velar stops werepalatalized in certain cases but not others. That resulted in some alternations, many of which have beenlevelled, but traces occur in some word doublets such asditch/dɪtʃ/ anddike/daɪk/.

In the past tense of certain verbs, English also retains traces of several ancient sound developments such as *kt > *xt and *ŋx > *x; many of them have been further complicated by the loss of/x/ in Middle English.

• seek/siːk/ :sought/sɔːt/
• think/θɪŋk/ :thought/θɔːt/

The pairteach/tiːt͡ʃ/ :taught/tɔːt/ has a combination of both this and palatalization.

A second palatalization, calledyod-coalescence, occurs in loanwords fromLatin. One subtype affects thesibilant consonants: earlier/sj/ and/zj/ were palatalized, leading to an alternation between alveolar/sz/ and postalveolar/ʃʒ/.

• confess/kənˈfɛs/ :confession/kənˈfɛʃən/
• fuse/fjuːz/ :fusion/ˈfjuːʒən/

Another unproductive layer results from the Vulgar Latin palatalization of velar stops before front vowels. It is thus imported from the Romance languages, and/kɡ/ alternate with/sdʒ/.

• induce/ɪnˈdjuːs/ :induction/inˈdʌkʃən/
• magic/ˈmædʒɪk/ :magus/meɪɡəs/

A combination of inherited and loaned alternation also occurs: an alternation pattern *t : *sj was brought over in Latinate loanwords, which in English was then turned into an alternation between/t/ and/ʃ/.

• act/ækt/ :action/ˈækʃən/

TheInsular Celtic languages are well-known for their initial consonant mutations.^[1][2] The individual languages vary on the number of mutations available:Scottish Gaelic has one,Irish andManx have two,Welsh,Cornish andBreton have four (if mixed mutations are counted). Cornish and Breton have so-called mixed mutations; a trigger causes one mutation to some sounds and another to other sounds. Welsh also has a mixed mutation (triggered byna,ni andoni). The languages vary on the environments for the mutations, but some generalizations can be made. Those languages all have feminine singular nouns mutated after the definite article, with adjectives mutated after feminine singular nouns. In most of the languages, thepossessive determiners trigger various mutations. Here are some examples from Breton, Cornish, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh:

Older textbooks on Gaelic sometimes refer to thec → ch mutation as "aspiration", but it is notaspiration in the sense of the word used by modern phoneticians, and linguists prefer to speak oflenition here.

Historically, the Celtic initial mutations originated fromprogressive assimilation andsandhi phenomena between adjacent words. For example, the mutating effect of the conjunctiona 'and' is from the word once having the form *ak, and the final consonant influenced the following sounds.^[3]

Welsh has three main classes of initial consonant mutation:soft mutation (Welsh:treiglad meddal);nasal mutation (Welsh:treiglad trwynol); andaspirate mutation, which is sometimes calledspirant mutation (Welsh:treiglad llaes). The fourth category ismixed mutation, which calls for anaspirate mutation if possible but otherwise asoft mutation. The following tables show the range of Welsh mutations with examples. A blank cell indicates that no change occurs.

The mutationts →j corresponds to thet →d mutation and reflects a change heard in modern words borrowed from English. Borrowed words liketsips/jips (chips) can often be heard in Wales.Dw i'n mynd i gael tsips 'I'm going to get (some) chips';Mae gen i jips 'I have chips'. However, thets →j mutation is not usually included the classic list of Welsh mutations and is rarely taught in formal classes. Nevertheless, it is a part of the colloquial language and is used by native speakers.

h-prothesis is a feature in Welsh in which a vowel-initial word becomesh-initial. It occurs after the possessive pronounsei 'her',ein 'our', andeu 'their':oedran 'age',eihoedran 'her age' (cf.ei oedran 'his age'). It also occurs withugain 'twenty' afterar 'on' in the traditional counting system:un arhugain 'twenty-one', literally "one on twenty".

Irish has two consonant mutations:lenition (Irish:séimhiú[ˈʃeːvʲuː]) andeclipsis (urú[ˈʊɾˠuː]).

Lenition (séimhiú) is indicated by an⟨h⟩ following the consonant in question or, in some older typefaces and texts, by anoverdot (⟨◌̇⟩) above the letter that has undergone lenition. The effects of lenition are as follows:

1. A stop becomes a fricative.Voicing is retained, as isplace of articulation except for thecoronals.
   • /pˠ/ →/fˠ/
   • /pʲ/ →/fʲ/
   • /t̪ˠ/ →/h/
   • /tʲ/ →/h/
   • /k/ →/x/
   • /c/ →/ç/
   • /bˠ/ →/w/,/v/
   • /bʲ/ →/vʲ/
   • /d̪ˠ/ →/ɣ/
   • /dʲ/ →/j/
   • /ɡ/ →/ɣ/
   • /ɟ/ →/j/
   • /mˠ/ →/w/
   • /mʲ/ →/vʲ/
2. /sˠ/ and/ʃ/ become/h/, but/sˠp(ʲ)/,/sˠm(ʲ)/,/sˠt̪ˠ/,/ʃtʲ/,/sˠk/, and/ʃc/ do not mutate.
3. /fˠ/ and/fʲ/ are deleted.

The following tables show how eclipsis affects the start of words. Eclipsis is represented in the orthography by adding a letter, or occasionally two letters, to the start of the word. If the word is to be capitalised, the original first letter is capitalised, not the letter or letters added for eclipsis, e.g. the⟨bhF⟩ inAmhrán nabhFiann, Ireland's national anthem.

InRussian, consonant mutation andalternations are a very common phenomenon duringword formation,conjugation and incomparative adjectives.

The most common classes of mutations are the alternation betweenvelar andpostalveolar consonants:

• к/k/ →ч/tɕ/
• г/ɡ/ →ж/ʐ/
• х/x/ →ш/ʂ/, as inтихий "quiet" andтише "quieter"
• Gain or loss ofpalatalization:царь "tsar" andцарский "of the tsar" (adjective)

Other common mutations are:

• т/t/ →ч/tɕ/ (or less frequently щ/ɕː/),д/d/ →ж/ʐ/
• з/z/ →ж/ʐ/,с/s/ →ш/ʂ/,ц/ts/ →ч/tɕ/
• ск/sk/ →щ/ɕː/: плеск → плещет "splash" / "(he) splashes",ст/st/ →щ/ɕː/: свистеть → свищу "to whistle" / "I whistle"

ModernHebrew shows a limited set of mutation alternations, involvingspirantization only.^[4] The consonants affected may be stem-initial, stem-medial, or stem-final.

However, in Modern Hebrew, stop and fricative variants ofב‎‏,כ‎ andפ‎ are sometimes distinct phonemes:

For a more in depth discussion of this phenomenon, seeBegadkefat.

Rendaku, meaning "sequential voicing", is a mutation of the initial consonant of a non-initial component in aJapanese compound word:

• nigiri + sushi → nigirizushi ("grip (with the hand)" + "sushi" → "hand-shapedsushi")
• nigori + sake → nigorizake ("muddy" + "rice wine" → "unfilteredsake")

Word-medial consonant mutation is found in severalUralic languages and has the traditional name ofconsonant gradation. It is pervasive, especially in theSamic andFinnic branches.

Consonant gradation involves an alternation in consonants between a strong grade in some forms of a word and a weak grade in others. The consonants subject to gradation are the plosives (p,t,k) that are followed by a vowel and preceded by a vowel, a sonorant (m,n,l,r), orh. The strong grade usually appears in an open syllable or before a long vowel.

The gradation of loanwords may include gradation of the plosives that are not native to Finnish:

Burmese exhibits consonant mutation, in the form of sandhi voicing, to varying degrees across regional dialects.^[5] Speakers from Yangon andUpper Myanmar exhibit more consistent use of sandhi voicing and assimilation than speakers from peripheral regions, though local and individual variation exists.^[5] InArakanese (Rakhine), voicing is limited to plain initials, while it is entirely absent in theIntha dialect.^[5] The following consonants are eligible for voicing in Burmese:

Voicing generally occurs when a voicable consonant occurs between two vowels, and have voiced consonants. Some commonly used grammatical markers like⟨တယ်⟩ ([tɛ] →[dɛ] →[ɾɛ]) and⟨ဘူး⟩ ([bù] →[ù]) also undergo the 2nd stage of voicing.^[5] Voicing also occurs in the pronunciation ofBurmese numerals and classifiers.^[5]

The primary type of sandhi voicing occurs when two syllables are joined to form acompound word, with the initial consonant of the second syllable becomingvoiced.^[5]

Examples:

/sʰé/ (ဆေး) +/kʰáɴ/ (ခန်း) >/sʰéɡáɴ/ ("medicine" + "room" → "clinic")

The second type of consonant mutation occurs when the phoneme/dʑ/ after the nasalized final/ɴ/ becomes a/j/ sound in compound words.

Examples:

"blouse" (အင်္ကျီangkyi) can be pronounced/èɪɴdʑí/ or/èɪɴjí/.

The third type of consonant mutation occurs when phonemes/p,pʰ,b,t,tʰ,d/, after the nasalized final/ɴ/, become/m/ in compound words:

/tàɪɴ/ (တိုင်) +/pɪ̀ɴ/ (ပင်) >/tàɪɴmɪ̀ɴ/ (တိုင်ပင်) ("to consult")

/táʊɴ/ (တောင်း) +/pàɴ/ (ပန်) >/táʊɴmàɴ/ ("to apologize")

/lèjɪ̀ɴ/ (လေယာဉ်) +/pjàɴ/ (ပျံ) >/lèɪɴmjàɴ/ ("airplane")

Mutation of the initial consonant of verbs is a feature of several languages in theSouthern Oceanic branch of theAustronesian language family.

Initial consonant mutation occurs in manyCentral Vanuatu languages likeRaga:

nanvano "I went"

nambano "I go"

Those patterns of mutations probably arose when a nasal prefix, indicating therealis mood, became combined with the verb's initial consonant.^[6] The possible ancestral pattern of mutation and its descendants in some modern Central Vanuatu languages are shown below:

Initial consonant mutation also serves a grammatical purpose in someNew Caledonian languages. For example,Iaai uses initial consonant mutation in verbs to distinguish between specific/definite objects and generic/indefinite objects:

Those forms likely derive from an earlierreduplication of the first syllable in which the interconsonantal vowel was deleted, resulting in aspirantization of the formerly reduplicated consonant.^[7]

TheDholuo language (one of theLuo languages) shows alternations between voiced and voiceless states of the final consonant of a noun stem.^[8] In theconstruct 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 oftenvowel alternations that are independent of consonant mutation.)

• ɡɔt 'hill' (abs.), god (const.)
• lʊθ 'stick' (abs.), luð (const.)
• kɪdo 'appearance' (abs.), kit (const.)
• tʃoɡo 'bone' (abs.),tʃok (const.)
• buk 'book' (abs.), bug (const.)
• kɪtabu 'book' (abs.),kɪtap (const.)

Consonant mutation is a prominent feature of theFula language. The Gombe dialect spoken inNigeria, for example, shows mutation triggered bydeclension class.^[9] The mutation grades arefortition andprenasalization:

For example, the stemsrim- 'free man' and[ɣim-] 'person' have the following forms:

• [rimɓe] (class 2),dimo (class 1),ndimon (class 6)
• [ɣimɓe] (class 2),gimɗo (class 1),ŋgimkon (class 6)

The active form of a multisyllabic verb with an initialstop consonant orfricative consonant is formed by prefixing the verb stem withmeN- in whichN stands for anasal sharing the sameplace of articulation 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)

An initial consonant that is an unvoiced stop ors is deleted, 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 is realized asng([ŋ]).

Monosyllabic verbs add anepenthetic vowel before prefixing and produce the prefixmenge-:

• bor (= boring tool / drill) → mengebor (= to make a hole with drill).

Verbs starting with a nasal orapproximant consonant do not add any mutant nasal, onlyme-.^[10]

The colloquial language (especially Jakartan Indonesian) dropsme- prefix but tends to replace it with nasalization in some consonants:^{[citation needed]}

• tanya →menanya →nanya
• pikir →memikir →mikir
• merepotkan →ng(e)repotin

More information isavailable in the Latvian Wikipedia.

Also two consonants can mutate as a group.

InUte, also called Southern Paiute, there are three consonant mutations, which are triggered by different word-stems,^[11] The mutations arespirantization,gemination, andprenasalization:

For example, the absolutive suffix-pi appears in different forms, according to the noun stem to which it is suffixed:

• movi-ppi 'nose'
• sappI-vi 'belly'
• aŋo-mpi 'tongue'

• Lenition
• Fortition
• Consonant gradation
• Rendaku
• Sonority hierarchy
• Apophony
• Elision
• Historical linguistics

• Grijzenhout, Janet. 2011. 'Consonant Mutation' in Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume and Keren Rice (eds.)The Blackwell Companion to Phonology (Oxford: Blackwell) III: 1537-1558.
• 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.

• Celtic languages
• Linguistic morphology
• Phonology
• Syntax

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