[p]→[∅]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 3/5
Voiceless bilabial plosive to Empty sound / Zero
The complete loss or elision of the voiceless bilabial plosive /p/, a characteristic sound change in the history of Celtic languages and various other lineages.
Phonetic Effects
Elision, Lenition
Language Examples
PIE *-p (word-final)→∅ (Latvian)— Latvian dropped word-final stops including *-p. Final consonant loss is a distinctive Latvian innovation compared to conservative Lithuanian which often retains final consonants.
me- + pergi (to go)→mempergi [but base p deleted in most stems]— Indonesian meN- prefix: initial /p/ is deleted in many bases, with the nasal assimilating to [m]. E.g., 'me- + pukul' → 'memukul' (to hit), underlying /p/ deleted.
*pater→athair— Complete loss of PIE *p in Old Irish.
*per→er— Loss of initial *p in Gaulish.
Related Transformations
More Elision Shifts
Sources & References
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