Initial Consonant Mutation (definition)

From Scottish Gaelic Grammar Wiki
Revision as of 14:58, 4 October 2015 by Cpatton (talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

A phonological phenomena in which the first consonant in a word changes due to its surrounding phonological, morphological, or syntactic environment. In Gaelic, Lenition is the primary initial consonant mutation, though Eclipsis also occurs. Lenition is typically indicated by adding an orthographic <h> after the first consonant. The phonological effects of lenition are: coronals become debuccalized, stops become fricatives, /f/ deletes, slender sonorants become broad. For example, the adjective mòr /mo:r/ becomes mhòr /vo:r/ after a feminine noun.

See Also

External Links

The link below takes you away from the Gaelic Wiki to Wikipedia. Since Wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, they often contain inaccurate information. So be careful!

References

  • Lamb, William (2003) Scottish Gaelic. 2nd edition. Munich: Lingcom Europa