[Lingtyp] L > N

[Matthew Dryer]

In the Wapei branch of the Torricelli family, a change from l to n occurred in the language Au.

Matthew

From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Larry M Hyman via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
To: Sergey Loesov <sergeloesov at gmail.com>
Cc: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] L > N
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

[cid:ii_mfu0smeb0]

On Sat, Sep 20, 2025 at 5:39 AM Sergey Loesov via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto: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<mailto: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/20250922/81b45815/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2159799 bytes
Desc: image.png
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20250922/81b45815/attachment-0001.png>