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Valthungian: Difference between revisions
→Blocking of Metathetical Unpacking
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===Blocking of Metathetical Unpacking=== | ===Blocking of Metathetical Unpacking=== | ||
Another formidable name, but what this means is that historically a sound change caused | Another formidable name, but what this means is that historically a sound change caused unstressed /a/ to disappear before a sonorant (/l/, /r/, /m/, or /n/), turning them into syllabics, and merging them with other pre-existing syllabics from Gothic. Later on, syllabics were “unpacked;” that is, they regained the /a/ that had been lost, but it now appeared after the sonorant instead of before it. For example, ''brōþar'' ‘brother’ became ''brōðra'' via an intermediate */brōðr̩/. However, there are a few instances where this unpacking didn’t happen because the ‹a› before the sonorant could not be deleted; if it were, the word would have been unpronounceable. Metathesis is also blocked after any non-intervocalic voiced continuant; that is, V[v/ð]S shifts as expected (e.g. ''widan'' > ''wiðn̩'' > ''wiðna''), but VC[v/ð]S does not (e.g. ''haldan'' > ''halðan'', not **''halðna''). | ||
The practicality of this rule as it applies to modern Gutish is that: | The practicality of this rule as it applies to modern Gutish is that: | ||