Back to Matrix [ɸ] → [pʰ] Edit this Data

[pʰ]→[ɸ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Spirantization Lenition Hellenic Germanic Indo-European

Voiceless aspirated bilabial plosive to Voiceless bilabial fricative

Spirantization of [pʰ] to [ɸ] involves the change of a voiceless aspirated bilabial stop into a voiceless bilabial fricative. This is a common form of lenition where the closure of the stop is incomplete.

Phonetic Effects

Spirantization, Lenition

Language Examples

Ancient Greek (Post-Classical) Indo-European

[pʰ] (φ)→[ɸ] > [f]— In the transition from Ancient to Modern Greek, the aspirated stops became fricatives. [pʰ] shifted to [ɸ] before eventually becoming labiodental [f].

English (Grimm's Law) Germanic

PIE *p→[f]— Grimm's Law in Germanic involved the shift of voiceless stops to fricatives. While PIE *p was not aspirated, the process [p] → [pʰ] → [ɸ] → [f] is the standard reconstruction for the development of English 'f' (e.g., 'father' vs Latin 'pater').

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Germanic Shifts

[a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [æ] → [ɛ] — Vowel Raising

Sources & References

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