The Universal Atlas of Phonetic Evolution
Back to Matrix [tʃ] → [r] Edit this Data

[r]→[tʃ]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 1/5

Alveolar trill to Voiceless postalveolar affricate

While a direct, unconditioned historical sound change from an alveolar trill /r/ to a voiceless postalveolar affricate /tʃ/ is uncommon across languages, such a transformation can occur as a regular morphophonological alternation within specific linguistic systems, often driven by phonotactic constraints.

Phonetic Effects

Affrication, Palatalization

Language Examples

/r/→[tʃ]— In Dholuo noun pluralization, stem-final /r/ undergoes an alternation to [tʃ] in plural forms. This change serves to repair illicit *[rt] sequences, which are disallowed in the language.

Related Transformations

More Palatalization Shifts

Sources & References

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