[y]→[g]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 3/5

Close front rounded vowel to Voiced velar plosive

The transformation of the high front rounded vowel [y] (or the palatal glide [j]) into the voiced velar stop [g] is a form of fortition and hardening, notably documented in historical sound laws where glides transition into stops.

Phonetic Effects

Fortition, Hardening, Consonantalization

Language Examples

Proto-Germanic (Holtzmann's Law) Germanic

Historical [jj/y]→[gg]— Verschärfung (sharpening) where doubled glides fortified into stops in the North and East Germanic branches (e.g., 'egg').

Egyptian Arabic Semitic

[j] (Standard jīm)→[g]— Regular phonetic realization in Cairene Arabic where the historical palatal segment is realized as a hard velar stop.

Related Transformations

Dental fortition Inverse: Palatalization

More Semitic Shifts

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

Sources & References

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