Lambdacism

Lambdacism is a sound change that creates a lateral consonant, or more specifically, a lateral approximant.

Lambdacism has been a frequent sound change especially in the Indo-Iranian languages, where earlier *l had merged with *r.

• *d > *ð > *l, unconditionally (in parts of Eastern Iranian incuding Pashto; in Tavastian Finnish)
• *ɖ⁽ʱ⁾ > *ɭ⁽ʱ⁾, between vowels (in Middle Indo-Aryan)
• *rθ or *rð > *l (in parts of Western Iranian)
• *ɬ > *l (in northern and eastern dialects of Khanty)

Among the Uralic languages, lambdacism frequently affects Proto-Uralic *d₁ and *d₂, although some scholars reconstruct these as lateral consonants to begin with (e.g. /ɬ/, /ɬʲ/).

• d₁ > /l/: in Permic, Mansi, Khanty, Hungarian.
• d₂ > /lʲ/: in Permic, Mansi, ; word-initially Mordvinic, Mari; probably also Hungarian (but later > /ɟ/ gy) and Samoyedic (but later > *j).

Among the Turkic languages, a similar debate concerns the consonant reflected as *l in Bolgar Turkic, yet *š in Common Turkic. Some scholars reconstruct original *š and a lambdacism in Bolgar; others reconstruct an original palatalized lateral *ľ and sigmacism in Common Turkic.

See also

• Rhotacism