[d]→[j]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Voiced alveolar plosive to Voiced palatal approximant

The lenition of /d/ to /j/ is a common process in Romance languages, often occurring intervocalically as the voiced dental stop becomes more sonorous and reduces to a semivowel.

Phonetic Effects

Lenition

Language Examples

Spanish Italic

hodie (Latin)→hoy [oj]— The Latin intervocalic /d/ in 'hodie' weakened to a palatal glide stage before disappearing or merging into the diphthong in Spanish 'hoy'.

Italian Italic

video (Latin)→veggio [veddʒo] (Archaic)— Development of Latin /dj/ to palatal sounds in Italian often passed through a glide or affricate stage.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Lenition Shifts

[a] → [∅] — Elision [b] → [v] — Spirantization [tɕ] → [ʃ] — De-affrication [tɕ] → [ɕ] — Lenition [d] → [∅] — Elision

Sources & References

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