| Sound change andalternation |
|---|
| Fortition |
| Dissimilation |
Delateralization is a replacement of alateral consonant by acentral consonant.
Arguably, the best known example of this sound change is yeísmo, which occurs in manySpanish and someGalician dialects.
In accents with yeísmo, thepalatal lateral approximant/ʎ/ merges with thepalatal approximant/ʝ/ which, phonetically, can be an affricate[ɟ͡ʝ] (word-initially and after/n/), an approximant[ʝ̞] (in other environments) or a fricative[ʝ] (in the same environments as the approximant, but only in careful speech).
InRomanian, the palatal lateral approximant/ʎ/ merged with/j/ centuries ago. The same happened to the historic palatal nasal/ɲ/, although that is an example oflenition.
InFrench, ⟨il⟩ (except in the word "il" [il]) and ⟨ill⟩ (usually followed by "e"; exceptions include "ville" [vil]) are usually pronounced [ij]. It generally occurs word- or morpheme-finally. For example,travail "work" (noun) [tʁavaj],travaillait "(he/she/it) used to work" [tʁavaje],gentille "kind"feminine singular [ʒɑ̃tij].
Furthermore, when a French word ending inal is pluralized, rather than becomingals, it becomesaux. For example,un animal spécial "a special animal" >des animaux spéciaux "(some) special animals".
Delateralisation can occur in Turkish. Its one lateral is [l], which can become [j] after [i]. For example,değil "not" is pronounced [de.ij].
In some accents, when [l] appears word-finally, or after a vowel and before a consonant, it can become [w]. For example, little [ˈlɪ.tʰl̩] > [ˈlɪ.tʰw̩], bell [bɛl] > [bɛw], help [hɛlp] > [hɛwpʰ].
ThePolishletterŁ represents the sound [w]. The orthography is evidence of an original lateral.
Another known example of delateralization is the sound change that happened to theArabicḍād, which, historically, was a lateral consonant, either apharyngealizedvoiced alveolar lateral fricative[ɮˤ]ⓘ or a similaraffricated sound[d͡ɮˤ] or[dˡˤ].[1][2] The affricated form is suggested by loans ofḍ into Akkadian asld orlṭ and into Malaysian asdl.[3] However, some linguists, such as the French orientalist André Roman supposes that the letter was actually a pharyngealizedvoiced alveolo-palatal sibilant[ʑˤ], similar to the Polishź, which is not a lateral sound.[1][2][4]
In modern Arabic, there are three possible realizations of this sound, all of which are central:[3]
