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Dear Sergey,</div>
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In Chamacoco (Zamucoan; Paraguay), <i>d</i>- and <i>l</i>- alternate and may turn into
<i>n</i>- in word-initial position. This affects the third-person irrealis in verbs and the reflexive third-person possessor in nouns. The change of
<i>d</i>-/<i>l</i>- into <i>n</i>- is related to nasal harmony, but initial <i>d-</i>,
<i>l-</i> and <i>n-</i> are in free alternation and their occurrence within a single inflected form in unpredictable. I provide further information on this in the following publications:</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.284; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="elementToProof">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ciucci, L. 2016. <i>Inflectional morphology in the Zamucoan languages</i>. Asunción: CEADUC. Available at:
</span><span style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><u><a style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class="OWAAutoLink" id="OWA8ce92636-8a2f-6fe8-58a9-3b805ff3c9b3" href="https://hal.science/hal-04429404v1">https://hal.science/hal-04429404v1</a></u></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
(see Sections 5.2.1 and 10.3).</span></div>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ciucci, L. 2020. Wordhood in Chamacoco. In A. Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon & N. M. White (eds.),
<i>Phonological word and grammatical word</i>, 78-120. Oxford University Press. Available at
</span><span style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><u><a style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class="OWAAutoLink" id="OWAd8fe2b2e-b6ab-252a-41a1-10cb065e593a" href="https://hal.science/hal-04428508v1">https://hal.science/hal-04428508v1</a></u></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
(see in particular Section 3.2).</span></div>
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All the best</div>
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Luca</div>
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<br>
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Luca Ciucci</div>
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow</div>
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Chair for Multilingual Computational Linguistics, University of Passau</div>
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Adjunct Research Fellow, James Cook University</div>
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<a id="LPlnk217042" href="https://cv.hal.science/luca-ciucci">https://cv.hal.science/luca-ciucci</a></div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Larry M Hyman via Lingtyp <lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org><br>
<b>Sent:</b> 22 September 2025 04:52<br>
<b>To:</b> Sergey Loesov <sergeloesov@gmail.com><br>
<b>Cc:</b> LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG <lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Lingtyp] L > N</font>
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<div dir="ltr">Thanks for all of the examples showing l > n. Although the contexts vary, I assume this change is a case of "strengthening", which would naturally associate it with onset position (although also with stem- and word-initial positions). From my
experience, prefixes are more likely to undergo l > n. In some Grassfields Bantu and Northwest Bantu languages the noun class 5 prefix *li- is realized ni- (~ nə-), e.g. Yemba (Bamileke-Dschang) lə-, Mbui ni-. I suspect that the greater resistance of *l to
[n] at the beginning of lexical morphemes (e.g. noun and verb roots) is because of the more significant contrastiveness of /l/ and /n/ vs. the small number of grammatical morphemes.
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<div>There also is the reverse occurrence of n > l in a "weakening" environment. Thus, in Aghem (Grassfields Bantu), /n/ becomes [l] intervocalically within stems. This not only produces alternations like bɨ́n 'dance' vs. bɨ́l-a 'dance-progressive' (Proto-Bantu
*bín) but also relics of the Proto-Bantu suffix *an 'reciprocal' as -lɔ. The following is from pp.9-10 of Aghem Grammatical Structure (1979), which I see is available here: <a href="https://gsil.sc-ling.org/pubs/SCOPILS_6_7_8_9/Aghem_grammatical_structure.pdf" originalsrc="https://gsil.sc-ling.org/pubs/SCOPILS_6_7_8_9/Aghem_grammatical_structure.pdf">https://gsil.sc-ling.org/pubs/SCOPILS_6_7_8_9/Aghem_grammatical_structure.pdf</a></div>
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<div>Best, Larry</div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="x_gmail_attr">On Sat, Sep 20, 2025 at 5:39 AM Sergey Loesov via Lingtyp <<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>> wrote:<br>
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<span lang="RU" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dear colleagues,</span></p>
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<span lang="RU" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span><span lang="RU" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Are you aware of a shift
<i>l</i>- > <i>n</i>- affecting the onsets of grammatical morphemes</span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">,
</span><span lang="RU" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">specifically in word-initial position?</span></p>
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<span lang="RU" style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Thank you very much!</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Sergey</span></p>
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<span class="x_gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
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<div>Larry M. Hyman, Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School</div>
<div>& Director, France-Berkeley Fund, University of California, Berkeley</div>
<div><a href="https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman" originalsrc="https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman</a><br>
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