Looking for sound changes

[vtardif]

As you're quite likely aware, many dialects of English in North America have /d/ /t/ > [ɾ] / V_V . I could see a similar change becoming contrastive.

[Zaarin]

Is

ʍ/x/_#

attested anywhere...or at least look plausible?

[KathTheDragon]

That should go to the Sound Change Quickie thread.

[Zaarin]

I looked for it and couldn't find it. :/

[Richard W]

I don't know much about Afro-Asiatic outside of Semitic, so it's quite possible I'm wrong about this, but I thought there were some correspondences between implosives in some branches of Afro-Asiatic and ejectives in others. I thought Chadic implosives corresponded at least in part with ejective consonants in some other branches of the family, for instance. I'm having trouble finding a paper that examines this subject directly, though. Tell me, guys: Am I dimly remembering something genuine or is it a load of bollocks?

I dimly remember it too. If all else fails, you could always look through Dolgopolsky's Nostratic dictionary.

[Chagen]

If you want completely nonsensical changes resulting in velar stops, then you can try /sw/ > /k/. It's attested in Armenian (though the result was /kʰ/). I guess /zw/ if its possible could get you /g/ by analogy.

[Matrix]

I'd imagine /sw/ > /k/ would be something like /sw/ > /hw/ > /xw/ > /kw/ > /k/, of course, the /w/ could be lost anywhere along the way, not just the end.

[Acid Badger]

If you want completely nonsensical changes resulting in velar stops, then you can try /sw/ > /k/. It's attested in Armenian (though the result was /kʰ/). I guess /zw/ if its possible could get you /g/ by analogy.

It's not nonsensical if you don't just pull out one particular change without context. Armenian had *w > /k g/ and clusters with /s/ followed by a plosive regularly produce voiceless aspirates. So /sw/ > /sg~sk/ > /kʰ/.

[Nortaneous]

Kinyarwanda had w > kw~gw~k~g in a few clusters, so sw > skw > sk seems reasonable. Tsakonian and a few dialects of Spanish had sP > P_h.

[Tropylium]

Tsakonian and a few dialects of Spanish had sP > P_h.

Some parts of Middle Indo-Aryan as well. These and Armenian also have *s > h so that was probably an intermediate here.

I don't know much about Afro-Asiatic outside of Semitic, so it's quite possible I'm wrong about this, but I thought there were some correspondences between implosives in some branches of Afro-Asiatic and ejectives in others. I thought Chadic implosives corresponded at least in part with ejective consonants in some other branches of the family, for instance. I'm having trouble finding a paper that examines this subject directly, though. Tell me, guys: Am I dimly remembering something genuine or is it a load of bollocks?

I dimly remember it too. If all else fails, you could always look through Dolgopolsky's Nostratic dictionary.

Dolgopolsky is a PITA to read, but here are a few examples from Bomhard's slightly more accessible Nostratic dictionary. I can't seem to find any examples of this involving Chadic (or indeed, any Chadic emphatics at all, tsk tsk), but Cushitic delivers:
Dahalo /ɗaħ-/ ~ Semitic *tʼaħan "to grind"
Dahalo /ɗeːkʼʷáːni/ "shadow" ~ Ethio-Semitic *tʼākʼā "darkness"
Dahalo /ɗukʼ-/ "to be destroyed", Sidamo /ɗoːk-/ "to burst" ~ Kambaata /tʼoːkʼ-/ "to burst", Semitic *tʼakʼtʼakʼ- "to beat"
(though this looks seriously onomatopoetic)

For labials there seems to be one example from Omotic.
Dache, Oyda /ɓuɓule/ ~ Welamo /pʼupʼule/ "egg"

[TaylorS]

Some parts of Middle Indo-Aryan as well.

Yep, Sanskrit /st/ becomes Pali /ttʰ/, for example. The Buddha's hometown in Sanskrit is Kapilavastu, in Pali it became Kapilavatthu. And that is probably one of the LEAST strange assimilations that happened from Sanskrit to Pali. Nirvana became Nibbana, how the heck does /rʋ/ become /bː/?

(I'm a Buddhist, if you are wondering how I became so interested in Pali, LOL! )

[KathTheDragon]

Nirvana became Nibbana, how the heck does /rʋ/ become /bː/?

Maybe /rʋ/ > /ʋ:/ > /β:/ > /b:/?

[Pole, the]

Some parts of Middle Indo-Aryan as well.

Yep, Sanskrit /st/ becomes Pali /ttʰ/, for example. The Buddha's hometown in Sanskrit is Kapilavastu, in Pali it became Kapilavatthu. And that is probably one of the LEAST strange assimilations that happened from Sanskrit to Pali. Nirvana became Nibbana, how the heck does /rʋ/ become /bː/?

[ru] → [rw] → [rv] → [vv] → [bb]?

[TaylorS]

Some parts of Middle Indo-Aryan as well.

Yep, Sanskrit /st/ becomes Pali /ttʰ/, for example. The Buddha's hometown in Sanskrit is Kapilavastu, in Pali it became Kapilavatthu. And that is probably one of the LEAST strange assimilations that happened from Sanskrit to Pali. Nirvana became Nibbana, how the heck does /rʋ/ become /bː/?

[ru] → [rw] → [rv] → [vv] → [bb]?

Checks out!