[p]→[h]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Voiceless bilabial plosive to Voiceless glottal fricative

The shift from the voiceless bilabial stop [p] to the glottal fricative [h] is a major form of debuccalization. It typically follows a lenition path where the stop first weakens to a bilabial fricative [ɸ] before losing its oral place of articulation entirely.

Phonetic Effects

Debuccalization, Lenition

Language Examples

Old Japanese to Modern Japanese Japonic

pa [p] (Old Japanese)→ha [h] (Modern Japanese)— The entire /h/ series in modern Japanese historically derives from a bilabial stop /p/.

Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic Celtic

*pater (PIE)→athair [∅/h] (Irish)— PIE *p was regularly debuccalized and eventually lost in the Celtic branch.

Related Transformations

Reverse Alternative path: Labiodentalization

More Lenition Shifts

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

Sources & References

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