Fortition

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Fortition is a consonantal mutation in which a sound is changed from one considered 'weak' to one considered 'strong.' For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a plosive (i.e. [v] becomes [b] or [r] becomes [d]). An approximant is also considered to be affected by fortition if it becomes a fricative.

An example of fortition is where the extremely common approximant sound [j] has changed into the very rare voiced fricative [ʝ] in a number of indigenous languages of the Arctic, such as the Eskimo-Aleut languages. In some varieties of Spanish this change has also occurred.

It is the opposite of lenition. Fortition is a much rarer sound change than lenition, and is not found in many languages.

[edit] See also

• Consonant mutation
• Grimm's Law
• Historical linguistics