Lifashian: Difference between revisions

Old Lifashian used to have a {{IPA|/ð/}} phoneme which was inconsistently written as '''d''' or '''l''' in the early stages of Lifashian writing (around the 7th century), but already by the beginning of the 9th century all words that were written with alternating '''d''' or '''l''' are consistently written with '''l'''. Lifashian {{IPA|/ð/}} in fact merged with {{IPA|/l/}} unless before consonants (or after '''n'''), where it merged with {{IPA|/d/}}; this is easily noticed from the fact that {{IPA|[ð]}} from multiple loanword sources before the spread of Islam is reflected as {{IPA|/l/}}: see for example Greek given names such as ''Δηϊδάμεια'' > ''Lilamiyá'' or ''Θουκυδίδης'' > ''Fókílil'' (but ''Δρυάδα'' > ''Driálá''<ref>This form is attested in early Lifashian; later Lifashian borrowed an ''-adá'' suffix from Medieval Greek, so that the modern form of this name has been archaized as ''Driádá''.</ref> for a preconsonantal example) or general nouns such as ''δελφῖνος'' > ''lalfín'' and ''στάδιον'' > ''sitálam''.<ref>Earlier, prehistoric borrowings likely entered Pre-Lifashian at a time when the contrast was still an aspiration one between two plosives, as shown most notably by Akkadian {{IPA|[d]}} being consistently reflected as Lifashian {{IPA|/l/}}, cf. Akkadian ''dišpu'' and Lifashian ''lesp'' "honey".</ref> Later in Lifashian history, foreign {{IPA|[ð]}} is borrowed as {{IPA|/d/}}, or indirectly as {{IPA|/z/}} from Arabic through Persian; see for example ''δημοκρατία'' > ''dimokratíyá''.