<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.<div><div><br></div><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">https://gsil.sc-ling.org/pubs/SCOPILS_6_7_8_9/Aghem_grammatical_structure.pdf</a></div><div><br></div><div>Best, Larry</div><div><div><br></div><div><img src="cid:ii_mfu0smeb0" alt="image.png" width="443" height="562"><br></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="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></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="RU" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dear
colleagues,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><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>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="RU" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Thank you very much!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Sergey</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </p></div>
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</blockquote></div><div><br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><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" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman</a><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>