Provection (fromLatin:provectio "advancement") is a technical term of linguistics with two main senses.
(1) The carrying over of the finalconsonant of a word to the beginning of the following word. Examples in English includeMiddle Englishan ewete becominga newt and Middle Englishan ekename becomingnickname. The term is obsolete in this sense; in modern terminology the process is usually calledmetanalysis orrebracketing, which also cover transposition in the reverse direction, as with Middle Englisha noumpere toModern Englishan umpire.
(2) InInsular Celtic languages, thedevoicing of a consonant, specifically the change ofvoiced consonants to the correspondingvoiceless consonants, e.g. of [g], [d], [b], [v] to [k], [t], [p], [f] respectively, under the influence of an adjacent voiceless consonant. Examples inWelsh include [g] > [k], as withteg "fair", which before a superlative suffix with the earlier form-haf (with voiceless [h]), givestecaf "fairest". This term is also used for a grammatically triggered process with a similar effect as in, for example,Bretonbro "land" butho pro "your (plural) land".
The termprovection has also been used for a variety of other processes in Celtic with similar effects, such as when two successive voicedplosives were replaced by a single voiceless plosive (Welsh *meid-din from Latinmatutinum "morning" becoming Welsh(ers) meitin "a while ago"), or when a voiced plosive was devoiced before a voiceless one and merged with it (Welshpob "every" +peth "thing" becomingpopeth "everything"). A further process for which the term has been used is for the change of a voiced fricative to a voiced stop after a resonant consonant, as in the case of Proto-Welsh *benðixt from Latinbenedictio "blessing" becoming Welshbendith. A catalogue of such effects is given in the historical linguistic textA Welsh grammar byJ. Morris Jones,[1] and inA concise comparative Celtic grammar byHenry Lewis andHolger Pedersen.[2] (For a brief account see also Ball (1993: 309)[3].).
The term is used by linguists both for the historical processes which give rise to a change of pronunciation, and for their legacy, the processes which occur when words ormorphemes of the appropriate form are brought together in continuous speech or writing. In the earlier history of theGoidelic languages, some changes of pronunciation comparable to those in British Celtic occurred, and the term is also used to label them, but those processes have no counterparts in the grammars of the surviving modern Goidelic languages,Irish andScottish Gaelic.[dubious –discuss]
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