[Lingtyp] L > N

[Larry M Hyman]

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.

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:
https://gsil.sc-ling.org/pubs/SCOPILS_6_7_8_9/Aghem_grammatical_structure.pdf

Best,  Larry

[image: image.png]

On Sat, Sep 20, 2025 at 5:39 AM Sergey Loesov via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
>  Are you aware of a shift *l*- > *n*- affecting the onsets of grammatical
> morphemes, specifically in word-initial position?
>
>
>
> Thank you very much!
>
>
>
> Sergey
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>


-- 
Larry M. Hyman, Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School
& Director, France-Berkeley Fund, University of California, Berkeley
https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20250921/de5a5aa5/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2159799 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20250921/de5a5aa5/attachment-0001.png>