Talk:Lotoka

Rhotics

Lotoka doesn't have any rhotics, but Proto-Peninsular does. What happened to them? I'm guessing [r] → [ɰ] at some stage. - Zhen Lin (talk) 07:30, 25 July 2015 (PDT)

PPI *r was realized as [ʁ] in the dialect leading to Lotoka. Shortly after the Common Ehlaut stage, the aspirated version of this sound became a voiceless dorsal fricative (along with other sounds: [βʰ wʰ zʰ jʰ ʁʰ] → [ɸ ɸ s ç x]); this new [x] merged with original PPI *x. Later on (between Pre-Lotoka and Early Lotoka), all "laryngeals" (i.e. all dorsal fricatives: voiceless [ç x h] and voiced [ɣ ʁ ɦ]) were lost in all positions, with compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel. The epenthetic [ɰ] (later → [j] or [w] or [ɡ]) which appears between vowels in the last section of the sound changes is strictly speaking not a reflex of *r, but its position does correspond to original intervocalic *r in some cases. - Cedh (talk) 04:56, 26 July 2015 (PDT)

That makes sense. I didn't realise it was counted as a laryngeal here! - Zhen Lin (talk) 06:13, 26 July 2015 (PDT)