Atlantic/Older version: Difference between revisions

The so-called Mauritanian palatalization (''palataligeoçon muridoinensa'') is considered in Atlantic linguistics the main isogloss between Mauritanian and Numidian dialects; this change likely started in the 17th century and was successfully completed in the span of a few generations in the territories of Mauritania. Mauritanian palatalization, both progressive and regressive, was triggered by all instances of /j/, affecting nearby consonants (a very similar change before /i/ happened before and is reflected in all modern Atlantic dialects); the orthography still unambiguously reflects the situation as for a given word, Mauritanian dialects will have a palatalized consonant (not in the phonetic sense of "palatalized") while Numidian dialects will have /j/ and a "regular" consonant.<br/>Mauritanian palatalization resulted in the following changes:

: /t d/ > /tʃ dʒ/, cf. ''fuit'' "he was" (Mauritanian /futʃ/, Numidian /fui̯t/), ''nàidur'' "shore" (Maur. /ˈnadʒur/, Num. /ˈnai̯dur/).

: /r/ > /ʒ/, cf. ''Uiolarea'', capital city of the Atlantic Provinces (Maur. /ujoˈlaʒa/, Num. /ujoˈlarja/). This change also happened, as part of Mauritanian palatalization, before /i/; Numidian still has /r/ before /i/, cf. ''riduòi'' "ritual" Maur. /ʒiˈdwoi̯/, Num. /riˈdwoi̯/.

: /s/ > /ʃ/, but /s/ from /ts/ was '''not''' affected (suggesting that deaffrication likely happened later), cf. ''fuist'' "you were" (Maur. /fuʃt/, Num. /fui̯st/), ''Asea'' "Asia" (Maur. /ˈaʃa/, Num. /ˈasja/).