[ǃ]→[d]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 2/5

Alveolar click to Voiced alveolar plosive

The shift from an alveolar click [ǃ] to an alveolar pulmonic stop [d] (or [t]) is a process known as 'click loss'. Clicks are complex consonants with two closures (one front, one velar). When a language simplifies its phonology, the velaric suction mechanism is often abandoned, leaving only the front release—which corresponds to a standard alveolar stop.

Phonetic Effects

Click Loss, Simplification

Language Examples

Fwe / Yeyi Bantu

[ᶢǃ] (voiced alveolar click)→[d]— In modern/urban varieties of these SW Bantu languages, clicks borrowed from Khoisan neighbors are being replaced by pulmonic coronal stops.

Kalahari Khoe Languages Khoe

[ǃ]→[t] / [d]— Internal click loss: words with historical clicks are simplified to coronal stops in contact or koineization contexts.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Bantu Shifts

[d] → [n] — Nasal Assimilation [j] → [ʑ] — Fortition [k] → [g] — Voicing [k] → [ɣ] — Lenition [ts] → [l] — Lenition

Sources & References

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