Debuccalization
Debuccalization or deoralization is a sound change or alternation in which an oral consonant loses its original place of articulation and moves it to the glottis (, , 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 , meaning "cheek" or "mouth". Debuccalization is usually seen as a subtype of lenition, which is often defined as a sound change involving the weakening of a consonant by progressive shifts in pronunciation. As with other forms of lenition, debuccalization may be synchronic or diachronic (i.e. it may involve alternations within a language depending on context or sound changes across time). Debuccalization processes occur in many different types of environments such as the following:
 word-initially, as in Kannada
 word-finally, as in Burmese
 intervocalically, as in a number of English varieties (e.g. litter ), or in Tuscan (the house /la kasa/ → [la ˈhaːsa])

Glottal stop

Arabic
 is debuccalized to  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. British and American English
Most English-speakers in England and many speakers of American English debuccalize  to a glottal stop  in two environments: in word-final position before another consonant (American English IPA)
get ready 
not much 
not good 
it says 
Before a syllabic  following , , or  or a vowel. The  may then also be nasally released. (American English IPA)
Milton 
Martin 
mountain 
cotton 
Latin

Cockney English
In Cockney English,  is often realized as a glottal stop  between vowels, liquids, and nasals (notably in the word bottle), a process called t-glottalization. German
The German ending -en is commonly realized as an assimilated syllabic nasal. Preceding voiceless stops are then glottally released:   ('laths'),   ('nape of the neck'). When such a stop is additionally preceded by a homorganic sonorant, it tends to be debuccalized entirely and create the clusters . For example,   ('rag'),   ('banks'). 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 the merged consonants may be debuccalized. For example, in Bavarian, both  ('ducks') and  ('Andes') are pronounced . Speakers are often unaware of that. Glottal fricative

Kannada
In old Kannada at around 10th-14th century, most of the initial /p/ debuccalized into a /h/ e.g. OlKn. pattu, MdKn. hattu "ten". Slavey
All coda consonants in Slavey must be glottal. When a non-glottal consonant would otherwise be positioned in a syllable coda, it debuccalizes to :
 →  ('hat')
 →  ('scar')
 →  ('rope')

Slavic
The /g/ of many Eastern and Western Slavic languages spirantized and later debuccalized, eg. Serbian bog, Russian box, Czech bůh, Ukrainian bih. English

Scots and Scottish English
In some varieties of Scots and Scottish English, particularly on the West Coast, a non word-final  th shifted to , a process called th-debuccalization. For example,  is realized as . Scouse
Pre-pausally, /t/ may be debuccalised to [h], eg. it, lot, that, what pronounced . Proto-Greek
In Proto-Greek,  shifted to  initially and between sonorants (vowels, liquids, and nasals). Proto-Indo-European  → Proto-Greek  → Ancient Greek  () "seven" (vs. Latin )

Intervocalic  had been lost by the time of Ancient Greek, and vowels in hiatus were contracted in the Attic dialect. post-PIE *ǵénesos → Proto-Greek  → Ionic  () : Attic  () "of a race"

Before a liquid or nasal, an  was assimilated to the preceding vowel in Attic-Ionic and Doric and to the following nasal in Aeolic. The process is also described as the loss of  and the subsequent lengthening of a vowel or consonant, which kept the syllable the same length (compensatory lengthening). PIE  → Proto-Greek  → Attic-Ionic  () : Aeolic  () "I am"

Sanskrit
In Sanskrit,  becomes  (written  in transliteration) before a pause: e.g. ('erotic love') becomes . Additionally, the Indo-European aspirated voiced palato-velar *ǵʰ- became : e.g. "arm" becomes Sanskrit . West Iberian

Spanish

A number of Spanish dialects debuccalize  to  or  at the end of a syllable or intervocalically in certain instances. Galician
In many varieties of Galician, as well as in Galician-influenced Spanish, the phoneme  may debuccalize () to  in most or all instances;  and  are also possible realizations. There is also an inverse hypercorrection process of older or less educated Galician speakers replacing the phoneme  of the Spanish language with , which is called . Portuguese
Portuguese is much less affected by debuccalization, but it is especially notable in its Brazilian variety. Throughout Brazil, the phoneme  (historically an alveolar trill  that moved to an uvular position) has a rather long inventory of allophones: . Only  is uncommon. Few dialects, such as  and , give preference to voiced allophones; elsewhere, they are common only as coda, before voiced consonants. In such dialects, especially among people speaking an educated variety of Portuguese, it is usual for the rhotic coda in the syllable rhyme to be an alveolar tap, as in European Portuguese and many registers of Spanish, or to be realized as  or . In the rest of the country, it is generally realized as , even by speakers who either do not normally use that allophone or delete it entirely, as is common in the vernacular. However, in some - and -influenced  rural registers,  is used but as an allophone of  (rhotic consonants are most often deleted), a  merger, instead of the much more common and less-stigmatized  merger characteristic of all Brazilian urban centers except for those bordering Mercosur countries, where coda  was preserved, and the entire North and Northeast regions. Its origin is the replacement of indigenous languages and  by Portuguese, which created ,  and r-colored vowel as allophones of both  (now mostly ) and  (now mostly ) phonemes in the coda since Native Brazilians could not easily pronounce them (caipira dialect). The later Portuguese influence from other regions made those allophones become rarer in some areas, but the  merger remained in a few isolated villages and towns. Finally, many  registers, especially those of the poor and of the youth, most northern and northeastern dialects, and, to a much minor degree, all other Brazilian dialects, debuccalize  (that is, ) but less so than in Spanish. However, a  merger or even a  merger occurs:  "but even so" or  "though, right, the same (f) one" ;  light "lighter, more slim", or also "less caloric/fatty" ;  "but from me, no" or  "not more from me" . A coda rhotic in the Brazilian dialects in the Centro-Sul area is hardly ever glottal, and the debuccalized  is unlikely to be confused with it. Romanian
In the Moldavian dialect of Romanian,  is debuccalised to  and so, for example,  becomes . The same occurred in Old Spanish, Old Gascon, and Old Japanese and still occurs in Sylheti. Goidelic languages

In Scottish and Irish Gaelic, s and t changed by lenition to , spelled sh and th. Faliscan
Inscription in Faliscan from the 4th century BC on show occasional debuccalization of  to  (e.g. hileo : Latin filius). Whether the shift is displayed in the inscriptions is highly irregular, with some forms even showing an ostensibly opposite shift of written f in place of an expected h (e.g. fe : Latin hic), possibly by means of hypercorrection. Yoruboid languages

Debuccalization occurs extensively within the dialectal contiuum of Yoruboid languages, particularly among the Olukumi language, Igala language, the Northeast Yoruba dialect known as Owe, and Southeastern dialects of the Yoruba language, such as Ikale. Many of these shifts came from Proto-Yoruboid language (or its descendant language, Proto-Edekiri), and descendant languages shifted from /s/ to /h/. In other cases shifts from /f/ to /h/ also occur from Proto-Yoruboid to Standard Yoruba. Many other alternatives shift from /s/ to /r/, but it is unclear if that process is associated with the debuccalization occurring. Proto-Yoruboid  → Igala , Proto-Edekiri *sè → Owe , Olukumi hè, Ikale  "to cook" (vs. Standard Yoruba )
 Proto-Yoruboid  → Igala , Proto-Edekiri *è-ho → Owe , Olukumi èhojin "fruit, seed (something that is sowed)" (vs. Standard Yoruba )
 Proto-Edekiri *V̀-sʊ̃ → Ikale , Olukumi ùhọn "ground squirrel" (vs. Ekiti Yoruba )
 Proto-Yoruboid  → Igala  (vs. Standard Yoruba )

Debuccalization also occurs in other Volta-Niger languages, including Igbo, the Ayere-Ahan languages, and the Edo

Loanwords
Debuccalization can be a feature of loanword phonology. For example, debuccalization can be seen in Indonesian loanwords into Selayar. References

Bibliography

External links
 "Debuccalization" (Chapter 4 of Paul D. Fallon's The Synchronic and Diachronic Phonology of Ejectives [Routledge, 2001]) gives many other terms that have been proposed for the phenomenon. Debuccalization and supplementary gestures

Phonology