[ʔ]→[a]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Vocalization Vowel Coloring Laryngeal Theory Indo-European Hellenic

Glottal stop to Open front unrounded vowel

The transition from a glottal stop to the vowel [a] is most famously represented by the adaptation of the Phoenician letter Aleph (a glottal stop) into the Greek Alpha (the vowel [a]).

Phonetic Effects

Vocalization, Vowel Coloring, Laryngeal Theory

Language Examples

Ancient Greek (Alphabet History) Hellenic

Phoenician Aleph [ʔ]→Greek Alpha [a]— When Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet, the Aleph (a consonant letter for glottal stop) was repurposed as the vowel Alpha [a], since Greek lacked distinctive glottal stop phonemes.

Proto-Indo-European (Laryngeal Theory) Indo-European

*h₂ (a-coloring laryngeal)→[a]— The PIE laryngeal *h₂, sometimes reconstructed as a pharyngeal or glottal fricative, colors adjacent *e-vowels to [a]. E.g., *h₂ep- (water) → Greek apo-.

Related Transformations

Reverse Neutral coloring O-coloring

More Vocalization Shifts

[ʕ] → [a] — Vocalization [d] → [dʑ] — Palatalization [e] → [o] — Backing [ei] → [e] — Monophthongization [∅] → [ã] — Compensatory Nasalization

Sources & References

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