Debuccalization

Sound change towards glottal articulation 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 ([h], [ɦ], or [ʔ]). The pronunciation of a consonant as [h] 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 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 [ˈlɪʔə]), or in Tuscan (the house /la kasa/ → [la ˈhaːsa]) Glottal stop Arabic /q/ is debuccalized to /ʔ/ in several Arabic varieties, such as northern Egyptian, Lebanese, weste