Debuccalization

Debuccalization is a sound change in which an oral consonant loses its original place of articulation and moves it to the glottis (usually , , or ). The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspiration but in phonetics, aspiration is the burst of air accompanying a stop. The word comes from Latin bucca, meaning 'cheek' or 'mouth'. Debuccalization is a sound change in which an oral consonant loses its original place of articulation and moves it to the glottis (usually , , or ). The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspiration but in phonetics, aspiration is the burst of air accompanying a stop. The word comes from Latin bucca, meaning 'cheek' or 'mouth'. Debuccalization is usually seen as a sub-type of lenition, often defined as a consonant mutation involving the weakening of a consonant by progressive shifts in pronunciation. Debuccalization processes occur in many different types of environments such as the following: /q/ is debuccalized to /ʔ/ in several Arabic varieties, such as northern Egyptian, Lebanese, western Syrian, and urban Palestinian dialects, partially also in Jordanian Arabic (especially by female speakers). The Maltese language, which was originally an Arabic dialect, also shows this feature. Most English-speakers in England and many speakers of American English debuccalize /t/ to a glottal stop in two environments: in word-final position before another consonant (American English IPA) and before a syllabic following /l/, /r/, /n/, or a vowel. Here the /t/ may also be nasally released. (American English IPA) In Cockney English, /t/ is often realized as a glottal stop between vowels, liquids and nasals (notably in the word bottle), a process called t-glottalization. In German, voiceless stops are commonly debuccalized before syllabic nasals in the following clusters: /mpm̩, ltn̩, ntn̩, ŋkŋ̍/, which thus become . For example, Lumpen (“rags, tatters”) is pronounced . In some dialects, debuccalization may also occur before syllabic , though this is less common. Voiced stops are not usually debuccalized. However, many Upper German and East Central German dialects merge voiced and unvoiced stops at least word-internally and these merged consonants will be debuccalized. Thus in Bavarian, Anten (“ducks”) and Anden (“Andes”) are both pronounced . Speakers are often unaware of this.