[ð]→[u]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 3/5

Voiced dental fricative to Close back rounded vowel

Vocalization of the voiced dental fricative [ð] to the close back rounded vowel [u] or its corresponding semivowel [w] occurs in some Romance dialects and English varieties as a form of extreme lenition.

Phonetic Effects

Vocalization, Lenition

Language Examples

Spanish (Andalusian/Caribbean) Romance

ciudad [θjuˈðað]→[θjuˈðau]— Final [ð] (from /d/) vocalizes to [u] or [w] in many Southern Spanish and Latin American dialects.

Scots (Historical) Germanic

mouth [muːð]→[muː]— Loss or vocalization of final dental fricatives is a feature of historical development in certain varieties.

Related Transformations

Reverse Th-fronting

More Romance Shifts

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

Sources & References

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