Debuccalization
Debuccalization, or deoralization, is a sound change or alternation in which an oral consonant loses its original place of articulation and moves it to the glottis. The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspiration, but in phonetics, aspiration is the burst of air accompanying a stop. The word comes from Latin bucca, meaning 'cheek' or 'mouth'.
Debuccalization is usually seen as a subtype of lenition, which is often defined as a sound change involving the weakening of a consonant by progressive shifts in pronunciation. As with other forms of lenition, debuccalization may be synchronic or diachronic.
Debuccalization processes occur in many different types of environments such as the following:
- word-initially, as in Kannada
- word-finally, as in Burmese
- intervocalically, as in a number of English varieties, or in Tuscan
Glottal stop
Arabic
is debuccalized to in several Arabic varieties, such as northern Egyptian, Lebanese, western Syrian, and urban Palestinian dialects, partially also in Jordanian Arabic. The Maltese language, which was originally an Arabic dialect, also shows this feature.Indo-European languages
British and American English
Most English-speakers in England and many speakers of American English debuccalize to a glottal stop in two environments: in word-final position before another consonant- get ready
- not much
- not good
- it says
- Milton
- Martin
- mountain
- cotton
- Latin
- ''Layton''
Cockney English
German
The German ending -en is commonly realized as an assimilated syllabic nasal. Preceding voiceless stops are then glottally released: Latten , Nacken . When such a stop is additionally preceded by a homorganic sonorant, it tends to be debuccalized entirely and create the clusters. For example, Lumpen , Banken .Voiced stops are not usually debuccalized. However, many Upper German and East Central German dialects merge voiced and unvoiced stops at least word-internally, and the merged consonants may be debuccalized. For example, in Bavarian, both Anten and Anden are pronounced. Speakers are often unaware of that.
However, Standard German spoken in Luxembourg often lacks syllabic sonorants under the influence of Luxembourgish, so that -en is pronounced, rather than or.
Austronesian languages
Indonesian and Malay
In both languages, syllable-final -k is either realized as or. However, the pronunciation in Indonesian has been increasingly reverted to exempting some function words, especially among television news anchors, because of influence of Betawi.Sulawesi languages
Debuccalization is very common in parts of Sulawesi. Especially in the South Sulawesi branch, most languages have turned word-final *t and *k into a glottal stop.In every Gorontalic language except Buol and Kaidipang, *k was replaced by a glottal stop, and lost altogether in word-initial position: *kayu → Gorontalo ayu, *konuku → olu'u. However, if it followed *ŋ, then *k voiced into g in Gorontalo.
Debuccalization is also common in the Sangiric branch. In Sangir and Bantik, all final voiceless stops were reduced into ʔ. Also in Ratahan, final *t became ʔ. In Talaud, all instances of Proto-Sangiric *k were debuccalized into ʔ except when following *ŋ. Other newer instances of k resulted from *R when geminated or being word-final, e.g. *bəRu → bakku "new", *bibiR → biwikka "lip", *bəŋaR → bangngaka "molar".
Polynesian languages
Many Polynesian languages lost the original glottal stop *ʔ of their ancestor Proto-Polynesian but later debuccalized other consonants into a glottal stop. That applied to different consonants depending on the language, for example:- Samoan < *k
- Tahitian < PPn *k, *ŋ
- Marquesan < PPn *l, *r
- Mangarevan < PPn *f, *s
- Rurutu < PPn *k, *ŋ, *f, *s
- Hawaiian < PPn *k, *l, *r.
Glottal fricative
Indo-European languages
Slavic
Older was spirantized and later debuccalized in languages such as Belarusian, the Czech–Slovak languages, Ukrainian, and Upper Sorbian, e.g. Serbian bog, Russian box, Czech bůh, Ukrainian bih.English
Scots and Scottish English
In some varieties of Scots and Scottish English, particularly on the West Coast, a non word-final th shifted to, a process called th-debuccalization. For example, is realized as.Scouse
Pre-pausally, may be debuccalized to : it, lot, that, what are then pronounced.Proto-Greek
In Proto-Greek, shifted to initially and between sonorants.- Proto-Indo-European → Proto-Greek *heptə́ → Ancient Greek "seven"
- post-PIE *ǵénesos → Proto-Greek *génehos → Ionic : Attic "of a race"
- PIE → Proto-Greek *ehmi → Attic-Ionic : Aeolic "I am"
Indo-Aryan
Sanskrit
In Sanskrit, becomes before a pause: e.g. , become,.Additionally, the Proto-Indo-European aspirated voiced palato-velar *ǵʰ became through successive affrication, assibilation and debuccalization: e.g. "arm" becomes Sanskrit. There are rare instances where bh, dh debuccalized but was preserved in Prakrits, e.g. PIE, Sanskrit, Pali ; PIE, Sanskrit, Gawri, Khowar.
Bengali
In many Eastern Bengali dialects, the voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant can become debuccalized to glottal or, e.g. "wife's brother" is, and "sea" is. The tenuis and aspirated forms of the labial stop and velar stop can get lenited to and respectively, but also be further debuccalized to or, e.g. "mad" is and "beggar, faqir" is. In some cases, even the glottal fricative is dropped, e.g. " came" is.Others
The Gujarati colloquial register has or both and debuccalized to voiceless. For educated speakers speaking this register, this replacement does not extend to borrowings from Sanskrit.West Iberian
Spanish
A number of Spanish dialects debuccalize to or to at the end of a syllable or intervocalically in certain instances. Some further undergo deletion and compensatory lengthening of nearby vowel or consonant.Galician
In many varieties of Galician, as well as in Galician-influenced Spanish, the phoneme may debuccalize to in most or all instances; and are also possible realizations. There is also an inverse hypercorrection process of older or less educated Galician speakers replacing the phoneme of Spanish with, which is called gueada.Portuguese
is much less affected by debuccalization, but it is especially notable in its Brazilian variety.Throughout Brazil, the phoneme has a rather long inventory of allophones:. Only is uncommon. Few dialects, such as South Region, Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, give preference to voiced allophones; elsewhere, they are common only as coda, before voiced consonants.
In such dialects, especially among people speaking an educated variety of Portuguese, it is usual for the rhotic coda in the syllable rhyme to be an alveolar tap, as in European Portuguese and many registers of Spanish, or to be realized as or. In the rest of the country, it is generally realized as, even by speakers who either do not normally use that allophone or delete it entirely, as is common in the vernacular.
However, in some Minas Gerais- and mineiro-influenced fluminense rural registers, is used but as an allophone of , a mar-mal merger, instead of the much more common and less-stigmatized mau-mal merger characteristic of all Brazilian urban centers except for those bordering Mercosur countries, where coda was preserved, and the entire North and Northeast regions. Its origin is the replacement of indigenous languages and língua geral by Portuguese, which created, and r-colored vowel as allophones of both and phonemes in the coda since Native Brazilians could not easily pronounce them. The later Portuguese influence from other regions made those allophones become rarer in some areas, but the mar-mal merger remained in a few isolated villages and towns.
Finally, many fluminense registers, especially those of the poor and of the youth; most northern and northeastern dialects; and, to a much minor degree, all other Brazilian dialects, debuccalize but less often than in Spanish. However, a mar-mas merger or even a mar-mais merger occurs: mas mesmo assim "but even so" or mas mesma, sim "though, right, the same one" ; mais light "lighter, more slim", or also "less caloric/fatty" ; mas de mim, não "but from me, no" or mais de mim, não "not more from me". A coda rhotic in the Brazilian dialects in the Centro-Sul area is hardly ever glottal, and the debuccalized is unlikely to be confused with it.