Blylandic language/Sound changes
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This article lists the sound changes that lead to Blylandic.
Note: This article is a work in progress.
Proto-Germanic to Old Blylandic
Note that Proto-Blylandic is largely similar to Proto-Germanic.
| Loss of /n/ before /x/, with nasalisation and compensatory lengthening of previous vowel | This may have affected all Proto-Germanic dialects, and may have been part of Proto-Germanic proper. However, the orthography used in reconstructions typically do not mark this any differently from an /nx/ sequence. |
| Assimilation of nasals to following stops | This causes all nasal + stop sequences to have the same point in articulation (e.g. /md/ → /nd/, /nk/ → [ŋk]). This rule acts as a surface filter that operates up to the modern language (note that any /mt/ sequences in further stages of the language are the result of morphological levelling). |
| Lowering of /ɛː/ in stressed syllables to /æː/ | This change was shared with North and West Germanic. In East Germanic, it instead merged with /eː/. |
| Loss of /w/ before /u/, and /j/ before /i/ | It is not clear whether this rule came before a-mutation or after. Regardless, this rule acts as a surface filter that operates right up into the modern language. Any VV sequences formed from this change do not form diphthongs, but may form long vowels (/uwu/ → /uː/). |
| A-mutation of /u/ to /o/, blocked by a labial or nasal consonant. | A change partially shared with North and West Germanic. This change in Blylandic entails /u/ becoming /o/ if and only if the following consonant or consonant cluster does not contain a nasal or labial consonant and the vowel in the following syllable is not /i/ or /u/. Unlike later forms of mutation, this affected stressed and unstressed /u/ alike. Diphthongs are unaffected. |
| Raising of /ɔː(ː)/ to /oː(ː)/ | This change does not affect /ɔ̃ː(ː)/ or diphthongs. |
| Raising of /ɛː(ː)/ to /eː(ː)/ | This eliminates the remaining /ɛː/ outside of diphthongs. Diphthongs are unaffected. |
| Delabialisation of word-final /xʷ/ in unstressed syllables | |
| Raising of /e/ and /o/ before hiatus | This raises the short monophthongs /e/ and /o/ to /ij/ and /uw/ respectively if it is directly followed by another vowel. If the following vowel is short /i/ or /u/, it is lowered to /e/ and /o/ respectively. Diphthongs are unaffected. If the mid vowel being raised is stressed, stress shifts to the following syllable. |
| Monophthongisation of /ɔːu/ and /ɛːi/ word-finally | This causes the long diphthongs /ɔːu/ and /ɛːi/ to become the overlong vowels /oːː/ and /eːː/ respectively. It explains the form of Old Blylandic ahto "eight" (Blylandic atte); without this change it would have become *ahtǫ (→ *attu). |
| Loss of unstressed word-final /ɑ̃/ | It is not clear when exactly this occurred. Typical Proto-Blylandic reconstructions show this change. It is hypothesised that it also affected unstressed word-final /ɑ/; however, no Runic Blylandic inscription shows any form that could have descended from a Proto-Germanic form ending in unstressed /ɑ/. This does not affect /jɑ̃/ and /wɑ̃/. |
| I-mutation of stressed vowels | A change partially shared with North and West Germanic. While /e/ became /i/ in Proto-Germanic, this extends the change to every other vowel except /i(ː)/ and /eː/. If the following syllable has a nucleus of /i/ or an onset including /j/, then the vowel is raised or fronted. The following changes are observed:
This change is blocked by an intervening /w/. |
| N-mutation of stressed /u/, /y/ and /i/ | A change unique to Blylandic. When /u/, /y/ and /i/ are followed by a geminated nasal, a nasal + fricative sequence or a nasal + liquid sequence, they are lowered to /o/, /ø/ and /e/ respectively. |
| U-mutation of stressed vowels | A change partially shared with North Germanic. If the following syllable has a nucleus of /u/ or an onset including /w/ (other than labiovelars), then the vowel is raised or rounded. The following changes are observed:
This change is blocked by an intervening /j/. |
| Palatalisation of coronals before unstressed word-final /i/ | A change unique to Blylandic. This resulted in the following changes:
This change was blocked by a preceding nasal (e.g. *-nþi → -nt, not **-nts → *-ns). |
| Neutralisation of unstressed short vowels in word-final syllables | This reduces both oral and nasal vowels to /ə/ and /ə̃/, respectively. Diphthongs are unaffected. |
| Lowering of long diphthongs | The long diphthongs /ɔːu/ and /ɔːi/ become /ɑːu/ and /ɑːi/, respectively. /ɛːu/ and /ɛːi/ become /æːu/ and /æːi/, respectively. |
| Loss of unstressed word-final non-nasal short vowels | A change shared with all other Germanic languages. If this results in the word ending in a /j/ or /w/, the semivowel becomes a full short vowel (/j/ → /i/, /w/ → /u/). |
| Loss of schwa after /(i)j/ and /(u)w/ | This results in /(i)jə/ becoming /i/ and /(u)wə/ becoming /u/. This occurs regardless of whether the schwa is nasalised. Note that if an /ijə/ or a /uwə/ sequence has a stressed /i/ or /u/ respectively, then the result is a long vowel instead of the short vowel obtained in all other conditions. |
| Reduction in length of all unstressed vowels in word-final syllables | Long vowels become short vowels, overlong vowels become regular long vowels. Diphthongs are affected. |
| Raising of unstressed /e/ and /o/ in word-final syllables | /e/ and /o/ in unstressed word-final syllables become /i/ and /u/ respectively. This did not occur if /e/ followed /j/, or /o/ followed /w/ (the labiovelars /xʷ/, /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ followed by word-final /o/ become the corresponding velar followed by /u/). |
| Degemination of geminated word-final consonants in unstressed syllables | While not affecting monosyllables (e.g. kann, the 3s present indicative of konnan), this removed geminates occurring in word-final position where the word ends in an unstressed syllable. This rule acts as a surface filter. |
| Lowering of unstressed /e/ to /æ/ in non-word-final syllables before /r/ | This is likely to have also affected unstressed /ɛ/; however, the vast majority of /ɛ/ at this point is stressed, meaning that it was largely unaffected. |
| Mutation of unstressed /e/ to /æ/ and /ɔ/ before /x(ʷ)/ + sonorant | The sequences /x(ʷ)l/, /x(ʷ)ɾ/, /x(ʷ)n/ and /x(ʷ)m/ cause any preceding unstressed /e/ to mutate. The outcome is /æ/ if the vowel is followed by a plain velar fricative, while /ɔ/ results in the case of a labiovelar. This sound change also takes place if a schwa separates the fricative and the sonorant, but is blocked if an /i/ or /j/ directly follows the sonorant, and a /u/ or /w/ following the sonorant forces the /ɔ/ result.
Note that /e/ in unstressed syllables at this point is very rare; however, loanwords and compounds (particularly the cardinals from 13 to 19) do show this sound change. /ɛ/ may have also been affected. |
| Lowering of /ɔ̃(ː)/ to /ɑ̃(ː)/ | |
| Lowering of high short nasal vowels | The nasal vowels /ĩ/ and /ũ/ become /ɛ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ respectively. |
| Reduction in length of all unstressed vowels | Word-final /ɑ̃ː/, mainly found in the genitive plural, is unaffected. |
| Denasalisation of all nasal vowels | The nasal vowels /ɑ̃(ː)/, /ə̃/, /ɛ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ become /ɑ(ː)/, /ə/, /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ respectively. |
| Mutation of /w/ to /j/ after unstressed /i/ | All /w/ following unstressed /i/ becomes /j/. If the vowel following is also /i/, it disappears instead and the resulting /ii/ sequence coalesces to short /i/. It is not clear if Sievers' law operated on these newly-formed /ij/ sequences, as the following change eliminated the law. This does not affect word-final /w/, thus the Proto-Germanic first person dual past subjunctive ending -īw becomes *-iu → -y (by a further sound change). |
| Reduction of /ij/ to /j/ | This change eliminates Sievers' law, which until this point acted as a surface filter. This did not affect /ij/ after /l/ or /r/ that is word-initial or following a consonant; however, it otherwise affected all stressed syllables, shifting stress to the following syllable. Note that for ja-stem neuter nouns, Sievers' law is still evident in the nominative/vocative/accusative singular (light stems exhibiting a palatalised consonant, heavy stems exhibiting -i). This came about because even though normal sound changes would always result in a -Ci ending (as seen in the masculine accusative singular), the heavy stem nouns had a Cij- stem for the other forms while the light stems had C(j)-. As such, sometime before the /ij/ reduction the neuter nominative/vocative/accusative singular was levelled to -C(j) for light stems (displaying the palatalised consonant, rather than the unpalatalised consonant). After reduction, the heavy stems had a -Ci/-C(j)-/-Ci- alternation, and the light stems a -C(j)/-C(j)-/-Ci- alternation. |
| Palatalisation of certain consonants before /j/ | This resulted in the following changes:
This change was blocked by a preceding nasal. |
| Transformation of /wj/ sequences | The sequences /ɛwj/ and /ewj/ become /øj/ (via intermediates /ɛɥ/ and /eɥ/ respectively) while /iwj/ becomes /iw/ (via an intermediate /iɥ/). |
| Loss of /j/ and /w/ following a consonant | This does not affect /w/ in stressed syllables. |
| Fortition of /x/ before /s/ | This results in /xs/ becoming /ks/. |
| Merger of /ʑ/ with /z/ | This eliminates the distinction between Proto-Germanic /z/, /zj/ and /zij/. All three will eventually become Blylandic /r/, with some exceptions. |
| The following sound changes actually occur during the Old Blylandic period, but are largely complete by c. 900. | |
| Devoicing of /z/ after /r/ | e.g. r-stem genitive singular *-urz → -erz → -ers This does not affect /z/ preceding a voiced consonant (e.g. *hirzniją "brain" → *hirzniję → hirzni → hirni, not *hirsni). |
| Assimilation of /θ/ and /z/ with preceding /n/, /m/ and /l/, and /r/ with preceding /l/ | This forms a geminate /nː/, /mː/ and /lː/ from the clusters /nθ/, /mθ/, /lθ/, /nz/, /mz/, /lz/ and /lr/. Note that in some cases, a non-geminate consonant is formed instead (e.g. a-stem accusative plural *-anz → *-enz → -en) due to the above-mentioned surface filter concerning geminated word-final consonants. Note that an /r/ following /nθ/ blocks this sound change (e.g. *sunþrą "south" → *sunþer → *sonþer → sonner, but *sunþrōnijaz → *sonþrōnijaz → *sonþrōnijez → *sonþrōniz → *sonþroniz → *soþþroniz → *soþþronir [→ soþþronjer by morphological levelling]), while an /r/ following /lθ/ is assimilated into the /lː/. |
| Assimilation of nasals to following fricatives | e.g. *fimf "five" → femf → feff, *uns "us (acc.)" → ons → oss |
| Rhotacisation of /z/ | This converts all remaining /z/ into /r/. Any remaining /z/ after /r/ is lost, while a /z/ preceding /r/ results in the sequence assimilating to /rː/. |
| Lenition of /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ | This turns /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ (written <c> and <dz> respectively in modern transliterations of old texts) into /s/ and /z/, respectively. |
| Devoicing of word-final obstruents. | All word-final obstruents are devoiced, turning /b/ into /p/, /d/ into /t/ and /g/ into /k/. |
| Fortition of word-final /ɸ/ and /θ/. | This forms /p/ and /t/ from /ɸ/ and /θ/, respectively. /x/ and /xʷ/ are unaffected. |
| Monophthongisation of diphthongs | This resulted in the following changes:
The first person dual present subjunctive ending *-aiw (written -äu in transliterations of early texts) becomes -ǫ. |
| Merger of /ɑ/ and /æ/ | The resulting phoneme is a centralised /a/ (compared to the original front /æ/ <a> and back /ɑ/ <å>). |
| Shift of /ɸ/ to /f/ | |
Note that the surface filter delabialising labiovelars to velars when next to /u/ still operates, even to the modern language.
Outcome of Proto-Germanic phonemes in Old Blylandic:
| Proto-Germanic | Old Blylandic |
|---|---|
| ɑ | a, ɛ(…i), ɔ(…u) a ə ∅ |
| ɑ̃ | N/A N/A N/A ∅ |
| ɑ̃ː | aː, ɛː(…i), ɔː(…u) a a N/A |
| ɛː | aː, ɛː(…i), ɔː(…u) e i i |
| ɛːː | N/A N/A N/A e |
| e | e, ø(…u) a ə N/A |
| eː | eː, øː(…u) e i i |
| i | i, i(…n…i), y(…u), e(…n), ø(…n…u) i ə ∅ |
| ĩ | N/A N/A N/A ə |
| iː | iː, yː(…u) i i i |
| ĩː | iː, yː(…u) i ɛ ɛ |
| ɔː | oː, øː(…i) o u u |
| ɔ̃ː | N/A N/A a a |
| ɔːː | N/A N/A o o |
| ɔ̃ːː | N/A N/A a aː |
| u | u, u(…n…u), o(…a, …n), ø(…n…i), y(…i) u, o(…a) ə ∅ |
| ũ | N/A N/A N/A ə |
| uː | uː, yː(…i) u u u |
| ũː | uː, yː(…i) u ɔ ɔ |
| ɑi, ɔːi | ɛː, eː(…i), øː(…u) ɛ ɛ ɛ |
| ɑu, ɔːu | ɔː, øː(…i), oː(…u) ɔ ɔ ɔ |
| eu | øː ø ø ø |
| iu | yː y y y |
| p | p |
| t | t, s(j, i#) |
| k | k, t͡ɕ(j) |
| kʷ | kʷ, k(u), (u)k |
| b | b, -p |
| d | d, z(j, i#), -t |
| g | g, d͡ʑ(j), -k |
| ɸ | f, -p |
| θ | θ, (n)n, (n)θ(r), (l)l, -t |
| x | x, k(s), ç(j) |
| xʷ | xʷ, -x (unstressed), x(u), (u)x, ç(j) |
| s | s, ɕ(j, i#) |
| z | r, (n)n, (m)m, (l)l |
| r | r, (l)l |
| l | l |
| n | n, ∅(s)ː, ∅(θ)ː(r), ɲ(j) |
| m | m, ∅(f)ː |
| j | j-, -∅- |
| w | w-, -∅- |
For the vowels, each row represents stressed syllables, unstressed non-word-final syllables, unstressed word-final closed syllables and unstressed word-final open syllables, respectively. I-umlaut forms are not shown for /e/ and /eu/ as they had already shifted up to /i/ and /iu/ respectively in Proto-Germanic.