[ʐ]→[ɾ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 2/5

Rhotacism Sino-Tibetan Indo-European Oto-Manguean Italic

Voiced retroflex fricative to Voiced alveolar flap

The transformation from a voiced retroflex fricative to an alveolar flap is a documented process of weakening and rhotacization, where a sibilant loses its frication and often its retroflexion to merge with alveolar rhotic liquids.

Phonetic Effects

Weakening, Rhotacization, Fronting

Language Examples

Chicahuaxtla Triqui Oto-Manguean

ʐ→r/ɾ— Speakers exhibit free variation between a voiced retroflex fricative and an alveolar trill or flap.

Latin Italic

s [→ z]→r [ɾ]— The process of rhotacism involved the voicing of intervocalic sibilants to [z] before they weakened into rhotics (trills or flaps).

Related Transformations

Reverse Devoicing Retraction

More Sino-Tibetan Shifts

[b] → [p] — Voice Loss [tɕ] → [ɕ] — Lenition [d] → [dʑ] — Palatalization [d] → [t] — Voice Loss [dz] → [l] — Deaffrication

Sources & References

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