[ɲ]→[j]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 5/5

Palatal nasal to Voiced palatal approximant

The reduction or lenition of palatal nasals into palatal glides is a common feature in many languages, often involving the loss of nasal airflow while maintaining the palatal point of articulation.

Phonetic Effects

Reduction, Lenition

Language Examples

Brazilian Portuguese Italic

nh [ɲ]→[j̃]— The Brazilian Portuguese 'nh' is often realized as a nasalized palatal glide rather than a full palatal nasal stop.

Spanish Italic

niño [niɲo]→niyo [nijo] (dialectal)— In some yeísta dialects, the palatal nasal /ɲ/ can weaken further towards a palatal glide.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Lenition Shifts

[a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [æ] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [b] → [v] — Spirantization [tɕ] → [ʃ] — De-affrication

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