[q]→[ʁ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Lenition Spirantization Voicing Semitic Eskimo-Aleut Turkic

Voiceless uvular plosive to Voiced uvular fricative

The shift from a voiceless uvular plosive [q] to a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] is a clear instance of lenition involving both voicing and spirantization. This change is common in environments where the airflow is less restricted, such as between vowels.

Phonetic Effects

Voicing, Spirantization, Lenition

Language Examples

Arabic (Sudanese) Semitic

qalam [q]→[ʁ]alam— In many Sudanese dialects, the classical /q/ is realized as a voiced uvular fricative or approximant.

Inuktitut Eskimo-Aleut

intervocalic /q/→[ʁ]— Uvular plosives regularly lenite to fricatives when occurring between vowels.

Uyghur Turkic

q→ʁ— Systematic lenition of uvular stops in suffixal positions or back-vowel contexts.

Related Transformations

Reverse backing debuccalization

More Semitic Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [a] → [∅] — Elision [ʕ] → [a] — Vocalization [ʕ] → [ʔ] — De-pharyngealization [b] → [v] — Spirantization

Sources & References

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