Elizabeth Pyatt: Nasal Fricatives

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

Breton shows that the spirantization of 
post-nasal /m/ was not a direct change of  /m/ to 
/v/.

Original word-internal psot-vocalic  /m/ in 
Brythonic corresponds to nasal-vowel plus /v/ in 
Breton. For example Celtic *sam-  > Brythonic 
*ham- 'summer' is hañv /hãv/ in Breton (vs. haf 
/hav/ in Welsh).

In mutation contexts, Breton /m/ becomes /v/ because it's word initial.

Of course, there's no phonetic data to show that 
there was a nasal fricative in Old Breton. but it 
does show that speakers were perceiving both 
nasality and continuancy for one segment.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
Education Technology Services, TLT/ITS
Penn State University
ejp10 at psu.edu, (814) 865-0805 or (814) 865-2030 (Main Office)

210 Rider Building II
227 W. Beaver Avenue
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