Modern Gallaecian mutation
Modern Gallaecian features, as other Celtic languages, a word-initial consonantal mutation system. While there is some evidence that other Continental Celtic languages such as Gaulish might have evolved mutation,[1] it is impossible to ascertain whether Gallaecian would too.
Soft mutation (bucoscaso)
The so-called soft mutation affects plosive consonants. It is the result of plosives voicing between vowels or voiced consonants.
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Environments
- Feminine nouns of either number in the direct case after the definite article: bea → em vea, terba → em derbas.
- Singular masculine nouns in the locative case after the definite article: torhedo → en dorheide.
- After singular possessive pronouns, that is, mo ‘my’, to ‘your’, and so ‘his/her/its’: queno → mo gueno, pá → to bá, gaña → so haña.
- After certain prepositions:
- In singular existential constructions: té → Ta dé uba ‘There is tea here’
- After the numbers 2, 5, and 8: tomate → dau domate, quesso → quenque guesso, polbo → otu bolbo.
- After the negative particle ne: cobruñe → Ne gobru ‘I don't want’
Nasal mutation (esloñaloscaso)
Nasal or hard mutation is far less common than its soft counterpart. Celtic nasal endings -om, -ām evolved into nasalized vowels, which lost the nasalization in most environments. In those where it was kept, it mutated the following consonant, hence the name.
| Original | > | Mutated |
|---|---|---|
| b | > | m |
| d | n | |
| g | c/qu | |
| m | v |
Environments
- After a genitive plural pronoun, i.e. asero ‘our’, suero ‘your’, and so ‘their’: duno → asero nuno.
- After the number seven: garo → seta caro.
- After the preposition i: mí → i ví camerze.
Marginal mutations
- Hard g
Outside soft and nasal mutations, the letter g shifts to c (before a, o, or u) and qu (after e and i) after a word ending in n, namely the definite article en.
- M-to-b mutation
While regarded as a kind of soft mutation, it is the only mutation in Modern Gallaecian that is not triggered by the preceding sounds. Instead, if a syllable starts with m and its coda or the onset of the following one is an n, the former mutates into a b.
Notes
- ^ Gray, Louis H. (October 1944). "Mutation in Gaulish". Language. Linguistic Society of America. 20 (4): 223. doi:10.2307/410121. JSTOR 410121.
- ^ Superseded by the hard g mutation.
- ^ Only example available; does this count as a hapax legomenon?
Sources
- Evans, Christian C. (2018). Calá Nuivaisá: Covezaso que reherensia [Modern Gallaecian: An Introduction and Reference] (PDF). ISBN 978-0-359-07664-2.
- Evans, Christian C. (April 2021). Lysimachiakis; Miacomet; Slorany (eds.). "Mutation in Modern Gallaecian" (PDF). Segments. r/conlangs (1, Phonology): 39–42.