JĘZYK W POZNANIU Ogólnopolska Studencka Językoznawcza Konferencja Naukowa
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Michał Baran (Uniwersytet Szczeciński)

The development of Irish and Welsh consonant features leading to morpheme-initial consonant mutations

The aim of this paper is to describe the development of Welsh and Irish consonant features leading to establishing and grammaticalising language-structuring systems of morpheme-initial consonant mutations (abbreviated here as mICM). This investigation constitutes a part of an international research project focused on providing appropriate phonological and phonetic descriptions of Welsh consonants. The modern Irish and Welsh mICM systems seem to be difficult to reconcile, mainly due to misleading traditional terminology. In order to solve this problem, the author conducted a literature review aimed at summarising what is currently known about changes in the phonology of the Celtic languages between the 11th Century BC and the 12th Century AD. A diachronic analysis of these changes reveals that (a) despite varying labels, both mICM systems result from and are based on phonological weakening caused by frication, spirantisation, deaspiration, debuccalisation and approximation, complemented by later, language-specific developments, (b) the fortis-lenis distinction was and still is the main consonant distinction in Welsh. 



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