Everything about Fortition totally explained
Fortition is a consonantal change from a 'weak' sound to a 'strong' one, the opposite of the more common
lenition. For example, a
fricative or an
approximant may become a
plosive (for example [v] becomes [b] or [r] becomes [d]). Although not as typical of
sound change as lenition, fortition may occur in prominent positions, such as at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable; as an effect of reducing
markedness; or due to
morphological leveling.
Examples
The extremely common approximant sound
[j] is sometimes subject to fortition; being a semivowel, almost any change to the sound save from simple deletion would constitute fortition. It has changed into the voiced fricative
[ʝ] in a number of indigenous languages of the
Arctic, such as the
Eskimo-Aleut languages and
Ket, and also in some varieties of
Spanish. Via a voiceless palatal approximant, it has turned in some
Germanic languages into
[ç], the voiceless equivalent of [ʝ] and also cross-linguistically rare though less so than [ʝ]. Another change turned [j] to an affricate
[dʒ] during the development of the
Romance languages, possibly through an intermediate stop
[ɟ].
Fortition of the cross-linguistically rare
interdental fricatives [θ] and [ð] to the almost universal corresponding stops [t] and [d] is relatively common. This has occurred in most continental
Germanic languages and several
English dialects, several
Uralic languages, and a few
Semitic languages, among others. This has the result of reducing the
markedness of the sounds [θ] and [ð].
Fortition also frequently occurs with voiceless versions of the common
lateral approximant [l], which are usually source from combinations of [l] with a voiceless
obstruent. The product is a
voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ].
An example of simultaneous fortition and lenition is Spanish, which changed [b] into [β] medially, but exhibits the opposite change in initial position. This resulted in the corresponding
phonemes (written
b and
v) merging into one.
In addition to language-internal development, fortition can also occur when a language acquires loanwords.
Goidelic languages frequently display fortition in loanwords as initial
fricatives are disallowed in the
citation form of Goidelic words. Thus initial fricatives of loanwords are strengthened to the corresponding
unlenited variant or the nearest equivalent if the fricative isn't part of the phoneme inventory.
Examples from
Scottish Gaelic:
| /v/ |
→ /b/ |
Scots vervain → bearbhain /b̊ɛɾavɛɲ/ |
| /(x)ʍ/ |
→ /k/ |
Scots wheel → cuidheall /kujəl̪ˠ/ |
| /w/ |
→ /b̊/ |
Scots wall → balla /b̊al̪ˠə/ |
| /f/ |
→ /b̊/ |
Latin fundus → bonn /b̊ɔun̪ˠ/ (foundation) |
| /θ/ |
→ /t̪/ |
Norse þrǣll → tràill /t̪ɾaːʎ/ (slave) |
| /h/ |
→ /t̪/ |
Scots hogshead → tocasaid /t̪ɔʰkəs̪əd̊ʲ/ |
| /j/ |
→ /g̊ʲ/ |
Scots yawl → geòla /g̊ʲɔːl̪ˠə/ |
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fortition'.
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