I've been thinking about the changes to consonants
in Germanic and I think I've come up with a way to
describe them with ordered rules through time (not a
push- or pull-chain). Has anyone proposed this
before?
Stops devoice before voiceless.
Stops deaspirate before non-aspirates.
Voiceless stops are aspirated.
Voiceless sounds are voiced between voiced sounds
unless directly after the accent. Being aspirated or
not doesn't matter in this rule.
Voiceless aspirates become fricatives unless after a
fricative (from beginning to end).
Voiced non-aspirate stops devoice.
All stops deaspirate.
z to s before voiceless
Examples:
'wul-kWas bhur-ta-'nas 'kap-tas 'bhrangh-tas
'wul-kWas bhur-ta-'nas 'kap-tas 'bhrankh-tas 1
'wul-kWas bhur-ta-'nas 'kap-tas 'bhrank-tas 2
'wul-kWhas bhur-tha-'nas 'kaph-thas 'bhrankh-thas 3
'wul-kWhaz bhur-dha-'nas 'kaph-thaz 'bhrankh-thaz 4
'wul-xWaz bhur-dha-'nas 'kaf-thaz 'bhranx-thaz 5
'wul-xWaz bur-da-'nas 'kaf-taz 'branx-taz 7
wolf carried captive brought
'dhiu-bas nis-'das kus-'dhan 'wag-si-ja-nan
'dhiu-bas nis-'das kus-'dhan 'wak-si-ja-nan 1
'dhiu-bas nis-'das khus-'dhan 'wakh-si-ja-nan 3
'dhiu-baz niz-'das khuz-'dhan 'wakh-si-ja-nan 4
'dhiu-baz niz-'das xuz-'dhan 'wax-si-ja-nan 5
'dhiu-paz niz-'tas xuz-'dhan 'wax-si-ja-nan 6
'diu-paz niz-'tas xuz-'dan 'wax-si-ja-nan 7
'diu-paz nis-'tas xuz-'dan 'wax-si-ja-nan 8
deep nest hoard grow
C-sonorant-continuant > -voice / _ C-voice 1
C-sonorant-continuant > -aspirate / _ C-aspirate 2
C-sonorant-continuant-voice > +aspirate 3
C-voice > +voice / -accent +voice _ +voice 4
C-voice+aspir > +continuant / *C-sonor+contin _ 5
C+voice-aspir > -voice 6
C > -aspirate 7
C-sonorant-continuant > -voice / _ C-voice 8
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