Fortition

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Historical sound change

General

Metathesis
Dissimilation
Fortition

Lenition (weakening)

Sonorization (voicing)
Spirantization (assibilation)
Rhotacism
Debuccalization (loss of place)

Elision (loss)

Apheresis (initial)
Syncope (medial)
Apocope (final)
Haplology (similar syllables)
Fusion
Cluster reduction
Compensatory lengthening

Epenthesis (addition)

Anaptyxis (vowel)
Excrescence (consonant)
Prosthesis (initial)
Paragoge (final)
Unpacking
Vowel breaking

Assimilation

Coarticulation
Palatalization (before front vowels)
Labialization (before rounded vowels)
Final devoicing (before silence)
Vowel harmony
Consonant harmony

Cheshirisation (trace remains)

Nasalization
Tonogenesis
Floating tone

Sandhi (boundary change)

Crasis (contraction)
Liaison, linking R
Consonant mutation
Tone sandhi
Hiatus

Fortition is a consonantal change from a 'weak' sound to a 'strong' one, the opposite of the more common lenition. For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a plosive (i.e. [v] becomes [b] or [r] becomes [d]). Although not as typical of sound change as lenition, fortition may occur in prominent positions, such as at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable; as an effect of reducing markedness; or due to morphological leveling.

[edit] Examples

The extremely common approximant sound [j] is sometimes subject to fortition; being a semivowel, almost any change to the sound save from simple deletion would constitute fortition. It has changed into the voiced fricative [ʝ] in a number of indigenous languages of the Arctic, such as the Eskimo-Aleut languages and Ket, and also in some varieties of Spanish. Via a voiceless palatal approximant, it has turned in some Germanic languages into [ç], the voiceless equivalent of [ʝ] and also cross-linguistically rare though less so than [ʝ]. Another change turned [j] to an affricate [dʒ] during the development of the Romance languages, possibly through an intermediate stop [ɟ].

Fortition of the cross-linguistically rare interdental fricatives [θ] and [ð] to the almost universal corresponding stops [t] and [d] is relatively common. This has occurred in most continental Germanic languages and several English dialects, several Uralic languages, and a few Semitic languages, among others. This has the result of reducing the markedness of the sounds [θ] and [ð].

Fortition also frequently occurs with voiceless versions of the common lateral approximant [l], which are usually source from combinations of [l] with a voiceless obstruent. The product is a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ].

An example of simultaneous fortition and lenition is Spanish, which changed [b] into [β] medially, but exhibits the opposite change in initial position. This resulted in the corresponding phonemes (written b and v) merging into one.

In addition to language-internal development, fortition can also occur when a language acquires loanwords. Goidelic languages frequently display fortition in loanwords as initial fricatives are disallowed in the citation form of Goidelic words. Thus initial fricatives of loanwords are strengthened to the corresponding unlenited variant or the nearest equivalent if the fricative is not part of the phoneme inventory.

Examples from Scottish Gaelic^[1]:

/v/	→ /b/	Scots vervain → bearbhain /b̊ɛɾavɛɲ/
/(x)ʍ/	→ /k/	Scots wheel → cuidheall /kujəl̪ˠ/
/w/	→ /b̊/	Scots wall → balla /b̊al̪ˠə/
/f/	→ /b̊/	Latin fundus → bonn /b̊ɔun̪ˠ/ (foundation)
/θ/	→ /t̪/	Norse þrǣll → tràill /t̪ɾaːʎ/ (slave)
/h/	→ /t̪/	Scots hogshead → tocasaid /t̪ɔʰkəs̪əd̊ʲ/
/j/	→ /g̊ʲ/	Scots yawl → geòla /g̊ʲɔːl̪ˠə/