[θ]→[ð]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 5/5

Voiceless dental fricative to Voiced dental fricative

Intervocalic voicing of the voiceless dental fricative [θ] to its voiced counterpart [ð] is a regular phonological process in many Germanic and other language varieties, typically occurring when the sound is positioned between two voiced segments.

Phonetic Effects

Voicing, Intervocalic Voicing

Language Examples

English (Historical/Morphological) Germanic

north [nɔːθ]→northern [ˈnɔːðən]— Voicing of the final dental fricative when followed by a voiced suffix.

bath [bæθ]→bathe [beɪð]— Intervocalic voicing in historical verb formation.

Old English to Middle English Germanic

Historical [θ]→[ð]— Dental fricatives became voiced when positioned between vowels (e.g., 'fathom').

Related Transformations

Devoicing

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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