Debuccalization
| Sound change and alternation |
|---|
| Fortition |
| Dissimilation |
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Debuccalization is a sound change in which a consonant loses its original place of articulation and becomes [h] or [ʔ].
Debuccalization is the second-to-last stage in the "opening" type of lenition, a consonant mutation involving the weakening of a consonant by progressive shifts in pronunciation.
Glottal stop
Cockney English
In Cockney English, /t/ is replaced by [ʔ] between vowels, liquids, and nasals (notably in the word bottle), a process called t-glottalization.
German
The Bavarian dialect debuccalizes any p, t, k, b, d, g that occurs between two consonants (a situation often produced by vowel elision in the same dialect) and replaces them by [ʔ]. Thus Antn (ducks) and Andn (Andes) sound at equals [anʔn], although speakers think it is the t or d they are pronouncing.[citation needed] With frequency depending on the location, hàn(d) ("are") occurs instead of the other (and altogether more general) Bavarian form sàn(d) (from the German seind, in contemporary German: sind).
Glottal fricative
Scottish English
In some varieties of Scottish English, /θ/ th shifted to [h], a process called th-debuccalization.
Proto-Greek
In Proto-Greek, /s/ shifted to [h] initially and between sonorants (vowels, liquids, and nasals).
- Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥ → Ancient Greek heptá "seven" (compare Latin septem)
Intervocalic /h/ was lost by the time of Ancient Greek, and vowels in hiatus were contracted in the Attic dialect.
- post-PIE *génesos → Proto-Greek *génehos → Ionic Greek géneos — Attic Greek génous "of a race"
Before a liquid or nasal, an /h/ was assimilated to the preceding vowel in Attic-Ionic and Doric and to the following nasal in Aeolic. The process of vowel assimilation is called compensatory lengthening.
Spanish
A number of Spanish dialects debuccalize /s/ at the end of a syllable to [h].
Gaelic
In Scottish and Irish Gaelic, s, t, f changed by lenition to [h], spelled sh, th and fh. Later the sound represented by fh was lost entirely.