[ɟ]→[c]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 4/5

Devoicing Palatal Austroasiatic Oti-Volta Gur

Voiced palatal plosive to Voiceless palatal plosive

The transformation from a voiced palatal plosive (/ɟ/) to a voiceless palatal plosive (/c/) is a common phonetic process known as devoicing. This shift involves the loss of vocal fold vibration during the articulation of the sound, resulting in a voiceless counterpart. Devoicing of stops is a widespread phenomenon in many languages, often occurring in specific phonetic environments such as word-final or syllable-final positions, or in certain intervocalic contexts. This change is a natural sound shift, influenced by articulatory and aerodynamic factors, as voiced stops, particularly velar and palatal ones, can be more susceptible to devoicing due to the smaller oral cavity volume behind the closure.

Phonetic Effects

Devoicing

Language Examples

Khmer Austroasiatic

ɟəːŋ→cəːŋ— Old/Middle Khmer /ɟ/ devoiced to Modern Khmer /c/ or /cʰ/ between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Boulba Gur

*ɟ→/c/— The Western Oti-Volta language Boulba historically devoiced the voiced palatal stop *ɟ to /c/.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Devoicing Shifts

[b] → [p] — Voice Loss [tʃ] → [c] — Deaffrication [d] → [t] — Voice Loss [ɡʲ] → [tɕ] — Palatalization [g] → [ɟ] — Palatalization

Sources & References

Spotted a mistake or have a better example?

EchoDrift is community-driven. You can suggest a change directly through GitHub.

Propose an Edit on GitHub